Downfall
by DarkElements10
Summary: -Sequel to Out of Doubt-. -Third in Series-. There are those who question the credibility of a legend and those who believe every word. Aided with the presence of something they thought never existed, Zack, Cody, and their friends are now able to see how everything started…and now they know how to end it.
1. PROLOGUE

**Downfall**

**By: Riley**

**Summary**** - **-Sequel to Out of Doubt- There are those who question the credibility of a legend and those who believe every word. Aided with the presence of something they thought never existed, Zack, Cody, and their friends are now able to see how everything started…and now they know how to end it. BaileyxCodyxOC ZackxOC TapewormxMax OCxOC

* * *

PROLOGUE

"Why is this happening? Why can't you just leave me alone?!"

The scream of frustration echoed around the high walls and high ceiling in the otherwise empty room. Nothing but a bed to sit on, a mirror to look into, books to read, and thoughts to consume the mind. A sigh was released after the effort of the scream; a resonating sigh. There was no sense in trying to reason with all of them. That's what happened when free will was given over to help further technological advancement. Talked about but never achieved. Medicines, technology, different things would make life easier for everyone around the world. That was fine, right? What they were doing was helping everyone else so why should they not be able to sacrifice something to get there?

And that's why he was there. He as the guinea pig who was tested on to see if they had managed to do the unthinkable. A new type of medication? He was stuck with it and was put on 24-hour surveillance to document the side effects. New sort of technology? He was the one who had to sit there and use it until any bugs were uncovered or there were any flaws in the security system. At first he said he would do anything to help the resistance, do anything to get rid of their existence. To get rid of _them_ all together. He enjoyed theline of work at the beginning, knowing they were finally going to get what was theirs back.

Then again, the more he worked on it, the more he started to wonder about them. What were their lives like? How was it different from the way he lived his life? Where they harmful to the lives around them? Or were they helpful. You weren't supposed to start thinking. If you started thinking, you started to question everything.

He questioned everything and now he wasn't so sure if what they were doing was worth it. These were innocent people who had their own lives and had gotten used to those lives and now they were potentially taking it all away from them? Forcing them to try and relearn how to be 'normal'.

Now he wanted out.

They said it was a good thing they were doing.

He hoped they were right.

* * *

**A/N: **Yep, after a month off I'm back to writing! And now I can do the last story in my trilogy. Though looking back on the first two (this one being done almost a year later and the first one being done probably two or three years before) I can see my improvement as I went along with them. It's kind of weird, but you can easily see where my ideas shifted. Anyway, this is the prologue, I'll have the first chapter up soon, and I'll have a cover photo/fic cover up here and on twitter soon.

Also, I need to thank _tiger002, __Crystal, _and _Rhu _for giving me ideas for this story.

Cheers,

-Riles


	2. The feeling I'm constantly being watched

CHAPTER ONE

* * *

Bailey Pickett stuffed her hands into her coat pockets as she watched cars zoom in front of her, trying to reach their destination at all costs. Her eyes narrowed against the brightness of the snow around her, reflecting shards of sunlight from the partly cloudy skies above. Boston in the winter was beautiful to her; she wasn't used to the cold, though nights on the farm could be competition.

But the blanket of snow was a new beginning.

It covered everything in a cool blanket, when melted everything started anew, started over, allowing things to change.

But not everything could change.

Some things had to stay the same or else no one would recognize anything around them. She realized that fact pretty quickly; it was a part of her life now. Whether she wanted it or not.

Bailey looked up as the light signaled she could cross the street and she fell in with the masses as they all filed off in one direction. Bailey walked along, her snow boots getting excellent traction, keeping her upright though her feet threatened to slide out from underneath her with nearly every step. Bending down, Bailey picked up a handful of snow and clenched her fingers around it. Her fingers squished the snow out to the sides, allowing it to slide through her fingers and drip to the ground once more. After a few seconds of the mind-numbing cold, she turned her hand back around, letting the packed snowflakes fall to the ground.

Bailey tucked her hair behind her ears and continued walking along the slick sidewalks of Boston back to her house. It wasn't exactly her house, she was just allowed to live there.

After the SS Tipton…

She couldn't think about that right now. About the schooling she gave up, the friends she hadn't seen. She wondered how London and Woody and Addison and Moseby and Miss. Tutweiller were doing, how things had gone down after the SS Tipton had finally docked back in the port and everyone was taken off so damages could be worked on. She figured Mr. Moseby would have gone back to become a manager at the Tipton hotel, but this was different, too. Boston was only just getting back to the way it was before, though there were still big differences.

"Hey Bailey."

"Bailey, hi."

"Hope you're having a nice day, Miss. Pickett."

"Please stop by when you can."

Bailey smiled politely and nodded at everyone who passed her, greeting her by name. Before the big battle, no one knew who she was and she had liked it that way. The constant attention now, it wasn't something she was nearly used to. The searing looks, the expressions of pity, the proud smiles... She was almost nineteen and they were recognized even more than the biggest celebrities in Hollywood. As a young girl she had dreamed of that sort of thing, now that it was her reality she wanted nothing than for things to go back to normal.

Bailey stretched her arms over her head, letting out a loud sigh; a mixture of content and annoyance. She was never one that knew how to deal with attention.

_"Don't worry Bailey, things will settle down soon," _Geneva said.

"_You'll get used to it," _Gattaca added.

Bailey smiled to herself. "Thanks guys." It was good to know they were still there. They had grown to be some of her best friends even if they weren't technically real. They were real in a sense, but not real to the sense of being things you could touch. Depending on who you asked.

Bailey spotted her house in the distance and hurried up the street, into the house. "Hey I'm back!" She called, hurrying to close the door so the frigid fingers of the cold wouldn't seep into the house. "Sorry, I'm late, the bus was running kind of slow."

She dropped her backpack to the ground and walked into the living room. Tapeworm Michaels looked up from the book he was reading and smiled at Bailey. "It's alright, we haven't started yet. Mom and Dad aren't home." He used his thumb to mark the book and placed it face down on the coffee table. "How was class?"

"Not bad," Bailey said. She walked over and sat down on the other end of the couch. Bringing her feet up, she tucked them under the blanket that served as decoration. It was a beautiful blanket, hand-woven from his great grandmother, but right now she was using it as a means to warm her feet. Spring and winter in Boston were no joke, she was learning. "We were talking about morals and code of conduct and stuff." Bailey lightly rolled her eyes, running a hand through her hair. "Of course this was when students weren't constantly asking me about our last battle and everything."

"I thought it'd come up at some point," Tapeworm remarked. As he said this, Ursa appeared in his small form on his lap, curling up in a ball. "I mean, now we're able to go around without worrying about being captured or tested on, I've gotten more looks than usual. Everyone know my name now. Weird right?"

"Definitely weird," Bailey agreed.

"I mean, Max always wanted to be able to have everyone knew her name, but that was from dancing or whatever." Tapeworm smiled, shaking his head. "If she saw how things were going down now, if anyone told her before, she would have laughed her head off." Tapeworm's smile waned for a second and he sat up straight, dropping his arms into his lap. "Then again, it gives us more freedom to do stuff instead of having to get all holed up all the time."

"Yeah, the progression of the world knowing all about elementals now is kind of cool," Bailey said. Suddenly, a feeling of dread washed over her. "Only, I'm sort of afraid knowing there's going to be a chance this will blow up in our faces."

Tapeworm's eyebrow twitched at the corner. "When does it not?"

Bailey smiled.

She and Tapeworm laughed.

* * *

"Cody, you need to wake up, right now!"

Cody Martin's eyes blinked open and immediately settled on the clock. It was only three in the morning. It was still dark, dark enough he couldn't see who was standing beside him and waking him up. There were only four options, one of which wouldn't work out as she wasn't supposed to be in there. However, the other three were probably sadistic enough to do something like this in their own ways. Wait until he was just starting to fall asleep and get rudely woken up again.

Well, five options. But the one he was used to wasn't there with him.

Cody smoothed his long hair out of his face. When had he gone to sleep? He couldn't remember now; too much work and time flying by.

"Cody!"

Cody let out a grunt of pain when something heavy landed on his back and head at the same time. _I should be used to it at this point, Zack did this when we were kids all the time. _Cody started to push himself up, at the same time the lamp clicked on. Cody groaned again, holding a hand over his face, nearly blinded. _What have I done to deserve this? _He opened his eyes as a shadow fell over him, and looked up into Christian Manning's face. The older man was peering down at him, a toothbrush hanging out the corner of his mouth.

"We're going to miss our flight," he said and then walked over to a door placed by the sink. He pulled it open, revealing the back to another door and knocked on it. "Crys? Hurry up, we gotta get going soon."

"I know, daddy, I'm packing up my stuff!" Crystal called back.

Christian closed the door and walked back over to the sink, spitting out toothpaste and saliva before running the sink water, rinsing out the toothbrush. He tossed it aside and grabbed a wash cloth to run it over his face.

Cody let out a heavy sigh, dropping his head back onto the pillow.

That's right.

They were in Canada, getting ready to take a flight back into Boston.

He momentarily thought about where Zack was, and figured he was on a plane back to Boston as well. Or maybe he was still at their house? He wasn't sure, the time difference was hard for him to calculate this early in the morning. They had all only been apart for only two months but it was enough. They all needed to get away from each other for the time being, to get away from the memories of what had happened at the fight with Mother Nature. Cody raised a hand up to his neck where he could feel a thin, puffy line. One of the scars remained from the battle, a constant reminder to how things used to be. Dropping his hand from his neck, Cody reached up and dug his fingers into the side of the body lying across his head.

Aaron laughed and rolled off of Cody's head as Sydney Jackson rolled off his back and the two landed on the floor with dull thuds. Just about eleven years old and the two of them were as rambunctious around each other as they had been when they first met, before Christian had adopted the blonde, sightless boy. It was still hard for Cody to see how capable Aaron was though he had become blind at such a young, impressionable age. He was willing to do anything he could without anyone's help even work with some dangerous chemicals when it came to the experiments Christian would ask his help with. His disabilities had to be helped by his intensely high IQ and ability to take care of himself.

Sydney, on the other hand, had known he was a genius from an early age, as he had been told. Teachers noticed how bored he had been in school fairly early and sent him out for testing. The results came back loud and clear, he was more advanced than other students in his class. His foster parent at the time, Robert—who coincidentally had the same last name as him and his siblings—decided to keep him in his classes as opposed to advancing him when he had the chance. Because of his increased brain power, he was able to understand even the most complicated equations, facts, and figures as well as wrote papers with some of the big name professors at big name universities.

It was still funny to see how childlike they could be even with some of the best opportunities they could have at their fingertips. Just like the one Cody had, why he and Zack had left Boston to go their separate ways. He hadn't gotten into Yale like Bailey had, and he had been pissed, but after Christian offered the position to be his assistant as he went back to a lab in Quebec, the area he had grown up, Cody knew he couldn't turn it down. So for the past two months he followed Christian around as he went to speak at conferences, have meetings with other scientists, and work on his own experiments and the whole while, they had all been recognized. Not for what Christian was doing but for the fact he was "one of the strongest elementals of their time" something he had been grown tired of hearing. He got it the first time, did he have to _keep_ hearing it?

Cody yawned, swinging his legs out of the bed. He stretched his arms over his head and bent over, cracking his back. Once he was upright again, he used his super speed to race around the hotel room, gathering his things and pushing it all back into his suitcase, zipping it as far as it would go. Once he slowed down enough, he went over to the sink. He looked down into the empty tub and held out his hand, a blue hue surrounding his hand as the familiar feeling of energy moved through his body, reaching his hand in a strong buzzing feeling. As he concentrated water snaked its way out of the faucet and followed his hands movements, creating a ball of water that floated in the air.

Cody spread his hands and the water thinned then, bringing his hands closer to his face, he manipulated the water to move over his face, the warmth opening his pours. Flicking his wrists, the water turned cold and he felt his pores snap shut. Cody then moved his hands back down and the water fell into the sink, falling down the drain.

_I've never been happier to have my powers than right now, _Cody thought. He ran his hands through his hair then ran around the hotel room getting dressed. As he moved about, Christian, who was moving at normal human speed, appeared to move an inch every second Cody moved at excess of 100mph. Finally, Cody sat down on top of his suitcase, patiently waiting as Aaron and Sydney played some game on Christian's iPad.

"I'll be ready in a few minutes, guys," Christian said. He was now standing at the sink, shaving. "We're not going to miss the flight." At the sound of a knock on the front door, he reached over and grabbed onto the door handle, pulling it open.

"I'm ready to go," Crystal said, wheeling her suitcase into the hotel room. She leaned over and gave Aaron and Sydney a kiss on the top of the head before giving her father a side hug. She turned to Cody, sitting down on top of her own suitcase, spinning a hotel card key in her hands. "How'd you sleep?"

"I would have slept better if those two didn't keep me awake," Cody said, pointing over to the younger boys. They were still so preoccupied with their game they didn't look up. "They kept tossing and turning and kicking each other and…I thought Zack was worse but that's laughable now." He snapped his fingers, flicking his hair out of his face. "Oh, and they jumped on my head to wake me up."

Crystal laughed a little, then pushed her glasses up her nose. "Yeah, they do that sometimes. I should have warned ya." She then placed her hand over her mouth. "Actually, after how long you've been out here, you figured you would have learned after the first time."

'Yeah, well, that's the point of learning, you don't actually get the idea of it until it literally hits you," Cody replied. He yawned again, resting his chin in his hands as he studied Crystal. The two months they had spent together was the most they had talked in a while, they were actually friends again, not having to worry about the past relationship they had. They didn't bring it up much anymore, it was like the fight with Mother Nature showed them what mattered and what didn't matter and everything was clearer.

Crystal clear…

Cody smiled to himself.

"What's so funny?" Crystal raised an eyebrow.

"Nothing." Cody held out his hands and formed a ball of water between them. He juggled it back and forth, it steadily increased and decreased in size the more he passed it back and forth. Crystal held out a hand, hers glowing a light blue, and hardened it into a ball of ice. Cody's eyes lifted to hers and he turned it back into a ball of water. "So I think the last conference went well, what with the announcement that Elementals are now being regarded as citizens and everything. Which is weird because they were before, people just didn't know who they were. It's a weird thought though, those that never awakened now can if they want, and those that decided to hide who they were, they can reveal it."

"Yeah, well, with every good thing, something bad happens," Crystal reminded him. Cody gave her a look. "I'm not being a pessimist, I'm being realistic. We're going to be up on this pedestal as long as we need to, but who knows what's going to happen since Mother Nature."

Cody reached out and grabbed onto her hand. "Everything's going to be ok, Tally."

Crystal's face twitched before she pulled her hand away from his grasp. "Can you promise that?" She shook her head, answering his own question. "I doubt it." She brushed her hair behind her ears and smiled a genuine smile. "But let's not worry about it now, we're going home and we're going to see our friends. We deserve some happiness, god knows it's been a while since we've all been completely happy."

Cody nodded back, giving a genuine smile as well.

* * *

Zack Martin watched the fluffy clouds slide across the cerulean sky. The sun was shining, there was a balmy breeze, the grass underneath him was cool and comfortable; he was indeed in paradise. Too bad he had to leave it soon. He understood all the hype about it, why people always wanted to go to the beach and never wanted to leave. It was relaxing and there were times he found himself sleeping for long stretches of time, just enjoying the sunshine around him.

Zack sucked in a deep breath and let it out through his mouth. The sun warmed him in a way that made him sluggish, refusing to let him move from the spot on the ground.

There was a sharp peck on his forehead, a tiny pinprick that caused searing pain. "Ouch!" Zack's eyes flew open just as a tiny eagle flew over his head and landed on his chest. The red feathers blended into the rustic brown of the rest of his body. "Blazen, what'd you do that for?" He brought his hand up to rub his forehead, but was met with a long, pink, tongue slathering up the side of his face.

"Yeah, he's awake."

Zack brought his arms up around his face as he felt little pin pricks on his cheeks and tongue moved over his nose and mouth. "Ugh!" Zack sat up and turned so he was sitting on his heels. Blazen flew out from underneath him before landing on the ground with the other guardians were surrounding him. "I'm not a buffet!" He laughed, dragging an arm across his face. "What d'you want?"

"Mistress Rhuben asked Master Patrick to be sure you woke up," DeathLiger, the lion of darkness, explained. He walked around in a circle, his mane being pulled by the wind, then sat down with Blazen, DalFang, ThunderTatsu, SilverTatsu, and a full grown lion who was sitting off to the side of them. "So we came and woke you up."

Zack turned a glare over to the large, golden lion who was sitting on the ground, running its front paw over his forehead. "Did you have to do that? I mean, if you wanted to kiss me, you could have just let me know before you ran your tongue all along my face." The lion gave a snort and before Zack's eyes, morphed down so Reihu was kneeling on the ground in front of him. The teenager stood up and shoot his dark brown hair out of his golden eyes.

"What would have been the fun in that?" Reihu smirked, crossing his arms over his chest. He tilted his head back towards the large house behind the two of them. "Besides, Rhuben told me to do it, she thought I'd be funny."

"Do you listen to everything your girlfriend tells you to do?" Zack brushed off the seat of his pants and held out his arm, allowing his guardian, Blazen to land on his forearm and hop up until he landed on his shoulders, sitting down, digging his talons into Zack's shirt.

"Not everything," Reihu said. His smirk widened. "But I have a better time of keeping my ass from getting kicked like you do."

Zack smirked back. "That's only because I enjoy it so much."

He laughed and leaned over, grabbing his shoes from the ground and started to walk back up the sloped backyard, the guardians running around his feet in their small forms. His eyes swept around the pool, with the cool tiles surrounding the water, the slide which led into one side, a bar sitting on the other. The picnic tables around the plastic chairs, flanking the sides of the fire pit sitting on a slab of concrete by the basement door. The trampoline sat in the back corner of the yard along with two hammocks resting from trees which gave shade to the backyard. He walked up the steps of the wooden deck, eyes moving over the backyard, the spacious backyard he always dreamed of having.

One of his biggest life dreams was to be able to have all of the money he could think of to make sure his family would be ok. He had an obsession with it, growing up, because of all of the material things he could get. After watching his mother try and save money for years he started to think about it different, wanting to be able to save as much as he could to help her out if she ever needed it. So he stashed some money away, but openly talked about the money he spent or stole from Cody. What would his reputation be if he was found out to be someone who was smart about his money and really did care about his brother and mother's wellbeing before his own? There were the rare moments he would show it, otherwise he'd kept it quiet.

"Zack, are you coming up?"

Zack turned and saw Patrick Jackson standing in the doorway to the kitchen, holding the glass door open. He nodded and went inside, waiting for the guardians and Reihu to pass him, before closing the door behind him. The cold air from the AC blasted him in the face, stinging his bare arms from his t-shirt sleeves. He rubbed his arms for a moment before stretching them over his head. "So what's for lunch?" He asked, pulling himself up to sit on the counter.

"Pizza," Rhuben replied. She opened the oven door and pulled out a large cardboard box out of the oven. She placed it on the island before pulling out three more. "Just came in about ten minutes ago. Unfortunately when Noah ran it in, it got cold." She turned around, closing the over door with her foot, and leaned against the island. "So we had to reheat the stuff."

"I said I was sorry," Noah commented. Zack looked over at the table, only just noticing Noah and Riley were sitting at the table, waiting for the pizza to be ready. Noah passed a paper cup back and forth between his hands. "I didn't think running so fast and using my powers to keep it aloft was going to cool it down so quickly."

"No worries, No," Riley said, bent over a magazine. Her cheek rested in the palm of her hand, angling her head down towards the glossy sheets of paper. "It's still going to taste good." She then sat up and winked at her brother. "Besides, the only reason I didn't offer to heat it up was because I was afraid I'd turn it to charcoal."

"Like last time?" Patrick teased.

"That was Zack's fault, not mine," Riley protested, pointing over to her boyfriend.

Zack made a sound, chewing on his fingernail. He brought his hand down from his mouth and crossed his arms over his chest. "Sorry, I was distracted," he said with a grin, causing Riley to roll her eyes and shake her head. "Lack of oxygen to the brain can do that to ya." He tapped himself on the temple before jumped down and taking one of the empty seats at the table. Reihu took the seat directly to his right and Rhuben sat down next to him, placing the pizza on the table in front of everyone. Zack jumped at the sound of a low growl and glanced over at Reihu, who rubbed his hands together before grabbing four slices of pizza and sliding them onto his plate.

"I thought I told you to stop doing that," Rhuben said, casting a side-eye to her boyfriend.

"No, you asked me to stop doing that when we were making out," Reihu said. He grabbed a slice and took a large bite, almost completely swallowing it in one bite. "Besides, I can't help it anyway, it's part of my lion genes and everything."

"What time are we leaving tomorrow?" Zack took a couple of bites of his pizza before ripping off a large chunk and dropped it onto the floor, letting Blazen hop over to it and started pecking at it to eat himself. He ran a hand over his face. "Early, I bet."

"Bet," Patrick agreed. "No point in even going to sleep, mate. Just stay up, get through customs. Sleep on the plane." He looked at his watch, frowning at the face for a moment. "I can never read this thing," he murmured.

"That's ok." Noah shrugged and slowly smiled, keeping his eyes on his plate. "You can't count past one anyway," He laughed along with Riley and Rhuben as Patrick shook his head, not taking any offense to his joke.

Zack pushed back his chair and tilted his head back so he was staring up at the high ceiling. He didn't think he'd be going to back to Boston so soon. He had been waiting for it, waiting for the time he would go back to the city and have everyone know who he was. Being in Australia it was hard to go anywhere without being stopped, it wasn't bad though, it wasn't his home. Going back to Boston would be better, it was a sense of comfort, being able to go home. And with everyone knowing the things he can do, it would be easier to live there, instead of wondering who was going to jump him at the last minute. Now he could go around the Tipton hotel and the park and wherever else he wanted to go without being paranoid.

He didn't have to hide, he didn't have to act like something he wasn't.

He could finally be himself.

Though there was a tiny part of him that wondered how after the battle with Mother Nature they were able to keep their powers. He also wondered why he had felt the small pang of annoyance when he found he did still have them. Everything was so complicated, there weren't any answers, no matter which way they turned.

"Zack, are you ok?" Noah asked.

"Yeah." Zack lowered his head. "Just thinking."

"Don't hurt yourself," Riley teased. Zack stuck his tongue out at her before flicking his hair from his face. He was going to need a haircut soon. She noticed his frown but didn't ask him about it, knowing it was better for him to work through his problems and ask for help on his own time. "Have you finished packing yet?" At Zack's humming sound she shook her head. "I'll take that as a 'no'."

"Dude, I can get it done in, like, five seconds," Zack protested. "Besides, that's not the problem."

"Then what is?" Rhuben and Reihu chorused.

"The feeling I'm constantly being watched."

* * *

**A/N:** I wanted to have this one focus on Zack, Cody, and Bailey because the three of them are the main-main characters with Sydney and Aaron along with them, and everyone else is main too. Considering he'd usually be with his siblings, Julius wasn't shown in this chapter on purpose, of course I have a reason for it. Next chapter will be up soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	3. Home, sweet home

CHAPTER TWO

* * *

"Home sweet home," Zack said as he opened the door to suite 2350 and flipped on the lights. Blazen immediately flew off his shoulder and circled the room twice before perching on the back of a chair. He shook out his feathers and puffed out his chest before settling himself down. Zack smiled, tossing his bag aside and closed the door behind him. "I guess you're still not happy with airplanes."

"Why would you want to be in an airplane when you can just fly yourself?" Blazen replied. He cocked his head to the side, sharp eyes watching Zack's every move across the suite. "And you call that stuff food? I've eaten better off a forest floor."

"At this point I think you're just too used to being able to do whatever you want," Zack commented, flopping down onto the couch and stretching out his legs. He brought a hand up and rested it on his forehead, closing his eyes. "It was bad enough that you were squawking the entire flight back, but did you really have to fly around the whole plane pooping on people."

Blazen hopped down into the seat of the chair and turned into his human form. His wings slumped against his back; shoulders slumping at the same time as his face feel. His cheeks reddened to match the color of the marking on his cheeks, maroon eyes shifting towards the floor. If Zack hadn't known that he was much older than the average human and not quite human itself, he would have mistaken his guardian for a young teenage boy. He had a habit of acting ht way at times, which seemed to match Zack's own. No wonder Cody was annoyed of his brother form time to time.

"It was an accident," Blazen defended himself. He stuck out his lower lip, pulling at the frayed ends of his pants. "I told you I get nervous whenever we get in one of those things." He was silent for a moment longer then popped up from the chair. "Is there anything to eat?" He headed over to the refrigerator and pulled it open, sticking his head inside.

"I doubt it," Zack replied, eyes still closed. "We haven't been here in, like, two months and you know Mom is usually the one that stocks it whenever she and Cody are coming back from camp or whatever." He lowered his arm from his forehead, chin still pointed towards the ceiling. He frowned, eyebrows lowering for a moment. "I wonder how she's doing."

The thought had crossed his mind more often than he wanted the past couple of weeks. Things had changed since he, Cody, and Bailey had left the SS Tipton with their friends two years before. He still remembered the expressions of shock and fear on his parents' faces when they first saw Blazen and Phantom. Things had been fine at first, Carey and Kurt had taken the news better than expected. Then the city was evacuated and the two had told their sons how they really felt; they couldn't be around their twin sons when that much danger was present. Case in point, Zack's fear had come true. They didn't understand and didn't want to understand.

So the Martin boys were on their own.

It was what Zack had always wanted growing up; to prove he could handle himself in the real world.

Now that his wish came true he only wanted to take it back.

Zack continued to sit on the couch, feet up on the coffee table and head tilted back. He took a few deep breaths before feeling slumber start to take him over. His fingers twitched on the top of the couch. He tried to fight it off the best he could, eyebrows moving around in grotesque shapes as he struggled to open his eyes.

Sleep hadn't come easy to him since the battle against Mother Nature. He could practically set his watch to it; he'd fall asleep, lost in the darkness that swirled around him as he entered the dreamless state. Then he would hear the screams of pain and torture coming from those that had been caught up in the battle, innocent bystanders that had unfortunately become the casualties of war. Then everything would play out for him; his friends getting hurt, the city destroyed by the arboris that Mother Nature had sent down to aid her cause, the expelled energy that left him a burned out mess by the end of the fight, his body lying in a hospital bed with a scar along his cheek and arms, and the aftermath, leaving Boston to start fresh, leaving his brother behind.

The nightmares continued to plague him every time he tried to sleep, forcing long bouts of insomnia as the days went on. He did his best not to think about it, but had to face reality once more once arriving back in Boston. Riley had offered for him to go back to the Mannings' house with them, so he wouldn't be alone in the suite but he had turned down the offer. He was going to have to go back at some point, why put off the inevitable?

Zack's lips twitched in the corner, his head jerking back and forth every now and then as the mages flashed through his head over and over, faster and faster. Light whimpers escaped his lips as the images continued on.

Blazen, who had managed to find a bag up chips in the cupboard dropped the snack and went over to his ward. Reaching out, he poked Zack on the side of the head with his finger, as he would with his beak if he was in his natural form.

"Zack? Are you ok?" His frown deepened when Zack didn't respond. "Zack?" He grabbed onto his shoulder and started to shake it. Zack's head lolled back and forth on his shoulders, eyes squeezing tighter together. Blazen unfolded his wings, the red tips started to glow, the temperature in the room rising.

"Whoa! Did the thermostat break?"

Blazen turned as Cody and his guardian, Phantom, walked into the suite. Phantom lifted himself from Cody's shoulder and glided over to his brother before turning into his human form and standing next to him as well. His hawk-like eyes immediately turned to Zack.

"Something's wrong," he noted to Cody.

Cody twisted his mouth to the side and hurried over to his twin brother. Looking down into his face Cody was suddenly struck with the notion that he didn't particularly recognize it. Since the last time he had seen his brother, Cody had never seen the amount of stone-like edge in his face. Had it always been there or was he only just noticing it? Was it ever seen in his own face? He could worry about it later.

Tucking his long hair behind his ear, Cody leaned over his brother's face and frowned with concern. After a couple of moments of watching, he sat down on the couch next to his brother and grabbed onto his shoulder, pressing his thumb into it hard. Lifting his free hand, he waited as it became encased in a blue hue, the palm and fingertips becoming covered with tiny droplets of water. Pressing his hand to his brother's forehead, Cody watched his brother's face. It relaxed slightly but he still hadn't woken up. Frowning, Cody continued to apply pressure to Zack's shoulder and finally Zack started to stir, his eyelids twitching and his shoulders lifting off the back of the couch.

"Are you sure I can't just start a fire under his butt?" Blazen asked. Despite the situation, he sounded excited at the idea of being able to cause minimal harm to his ward.

Cody smirked at him. "I've been trying to do that with his studies for years," he said. Turning back to his brother he gave his brother's shoulder a quick jerk then leaned back as Zack let out a loud gasp and his eyes flew open. He took a few quick breaths before leaning forward, resting his face in his hands. "You didn't eat a bunch of pizza before going to sleep did you? God knows it gives you the worst dreams along with bad breath and bad farts," he added with a light laugh.

Zack's eyes narrowed in a glare that he directed at his brother, lifting his face from his fingers. "You could have said anything else to make me feel better and you went with that?"

"Mushy goodbyes and hellos aren't our thing, remember?" Cody reminded him.

Zack gave him a small smile. "Yeah," he said. "I remember." Opening his arms, he leaned into his brother and gave him a warm hug, slapping him on the back. Cody hugged him back with the same amount of enthusiasm. The time they had spent apart, to take their mind off of what had gone on before they had to leave. Pulling back, Zack took in his brother's face, his smile fading into one of disbelief. "I know we used to dress you up as a girl sometimes, but I think you may have taken it too far this time," he remarked, seeing his younger brother's longer hair. Zack leaned back, eyes moving over the ponytail that poked out from behind Cody's head. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

"Other than wanting to make a change?" Cody shifted back until he was resting against the armrest. Subconsciously, he reached a hand up and ran it over his hair. "I didn't think it was that bad." He shrugged. "It's better than when I turned my hair red."

Zack laughed slightly. "Oh yeah, that had me laughing for a looooong time."

Cody made a humming noise, an expression of amusement on his face. "I know." He nodded once. "You took pictures and blackmailed me with it for days."

"Months, actually," Zack interjected. He got up from the couch and walked over to the kitchen, picking up the bag of chips that he had left on the counter. Wiping the spilled ones into the trashcan he walked back over to Cody, holding out the bag.

Cody eyed the bag then looked up at his brother as he sat down. "Ok." He grabbed the bag and looked through it. "What did you do to these chips?" He held out his arm and Phantom turned back into his eagle form and perched on top of Cody's arm. Blazen did the same, landing in Zak's lap. "Did you poison them or are lace them with laxatives?"

"Being around hose scientists and their experiments must have caused you to inhale a few too many toxic fumes," Zack remarked. He took the bag and made a show of shoving a large handful into his mouth. He chewed them loudly before speaking, spraying bits of food from his mouth. "How was it anyway? Being around all of those smart people that want to try and help us. That must have been a welcome change."

Cody shrugged again.

He was trying to downplay it but it had been better than he originally anticipated. Before everyone had left, Christian had too many run-ins and phone calls from reporters from local newspapers, radio stations, and TV stations wanting to talk to everyone that had been involved with Mother Nature. The captured footage was shown all around the world and they had all become more famous than any of them could have imagined. It was Christian's idea that they all get out of dodge to allow things to cool down.

The Jacksons had jumped at the chance to go back to Australia, Crystal wanted to go back to Canada and that left the others in limbo. Christian had gotten the opportunity to work with his former colleagues as well as speak at a series of a meetings and panels in direct correlation to elements and those that managed to awaken to their powers. He extended an invitation to Cody to joint hem and Sydney had expressed interest in going as well. Zack had originally planned to stay in Boston, having made a final decision to bypass college and figure out what it was that he really wanted to do with his life, before Patrick pointed out it'd be beneficial if he got out. Stepping out the front door of the Tipton had been hard and Esteban had to increase security when it was found out that Zack and Cody lived there.

Tapeworm and his parents were going to stay with relatives down in Florida and planned to take Bailey with him, making him the only one that would have stayed behind. Julius had noticed his hesitation and with that, declared that Zack was going to go with them.

His hesitation wasn't because he had wanted to stay in Boston; it was because he hadn't wanted to be separated from Cody. Not again. Not after he had lost him the first time, it nearly caused him to go into a massive breakdown. He had managed to destroy a couple of buildings and almost hurt his friends even further due to his increased powers from the element stone. He didn't want to be around anyone in case he lost control once more. Cody had easily seen it in his twin's face and was the one that gave him the final nudge to going, they would be back together soon and it would be better if they spent some time apart.

Would things really get better? So much had changed since he was fourteen years old and thinking that having those powers was the best thing in the world. It was all fun and games until he realized how serious everything was.

"It was really fun," Cody finally said after along moment of thought. He had become more calculated, trying to find the right words to express everything. "The research that has been going on over the years is fascinating. I never knew that there were people out there that were trying to make things easier for us elementals." He scratched the side of the neck where a thin, pink line was raised; a lasting mark from one of the arbori wrapping its vines around his neck, literally squeezing the life out of him. "It was really cool seeing how they were trying to help us and what they've done over the years." He briefly moved his gaze towards the ceiling. "Apparently Core had been really helpful to them over the years, being the one that funded a lot of it."

A moment of silence passed between the two of them for the man they had originally been their main adversary. Up until it was revealed he had actually been working with them for ages, he appeared to be one of the most evil men in the world, especially considering the questionable experiments and surgeries he had done on innocent people.

"Anyway," Cody broke the silence once more. He nudged Zack on the shoulder. "You went to Australia, how was that? You always said you wanted to go to a tropical place for a vacation."

Zack lifted a hand, allowing Blazen to messily eat chips from it. He couldn't stop the smile that slid onto his face. "It was awesome!" He ran his hand over Blazen's back, taking note of the way the smooth feathers felt under his fingers. The last time he had taken the chance to do that, the feathers were matted with blood, covering a body that had been doing its best to keep breathing.

Were those thoughts ever going to go away? Every time something good happened, every time he was supposed to have a good thought or have a moment where things were peaceful, it all came back. Maybe he was cursed. Or maybe he finally realized that there was no such thing as perfect and that the world really was out to get him. Why else would he have been given these powers that did nothing but make him miserable-those that put him in situations more difficult than any adult could go through. It was also what had managed to keep him alive, but now he knew that whenever something good happened, something bad happened and he adapted to sensing them before they came.

"Now I understand why people rave about it so much," Zack continued. "Everything was just so green and bright and lively. And the people there were so nice."

"And you got to spend that much time with your girlfriend," Cody pointed out.

"That was a plus," Zack agreed.

"Did you…?"

"No."

Cody made a tsking sound with his mouth. "That sucks."

Now it was Zack's turn to shake his head. "Not really," he said. "I mean, I've got more important things to think about." He turned the chip bag over in his hands and studied the date. His nose wrinkled and his stomach lurched to the side. "Like how sick we're going to be after eating these things? Mom _really _needs to do a better job with her cooking or stop leaving hold bags of food in the suite."

Cody tilted his head back and laughed loudly. "Figures the one thing you'd be worried about is food."

"I'm a growing boy, I can't help it," Zack defended himself.

"That's the same excuse you gave when we were growing up and you ate my food before I got the chance." Poking his brother in the chest, Cody smirked at him. There was a new life in his eyes, one that had been missing since he had left Boston. A haunted, stern darkness had filled them instead. Now his baby blues started to lighten.

"It proved my point didn't it?" Zack made a show of flexing his arms, muscles popping out of the taut skin. "You're still skinny as a rail."

"At least I'm smarter than a rail," Cody shot back.

Zack laughed and ran a hand through his hair. "Good one." He looked at his watch, letting out a low whistle when he saw how late it had gotten. No wonder he had been so tired when he returned to the Tipton. Standing up, Zack yawned, stretching his arms over his head. "Hey, we should be getting some sleep," he said. "If we're going to face this new fame, we should be well rested."

Cody rolled his eyes. "No matter how much sleep we get, we're never going to get used to this."

"I know."

But they deserved to have some time where they acted like nothing was different. He didn't say it out loud, but that's what Zack thought. Who knew how much longer they could continue to act like that.

Sleep was the only way it would be realized for the time being.

* * *

**A/N: **Yeah a bit of a short chapter, but I wanted to have it focus entirely on Zack and Cody and their reunion as well as implying some things that had gone on during the battle against Mother Nature. I hope you guys liked it.

Cheers,

-Riles


	4. A major case of déjà vu

CHAPTER THREE

* * *

Cody ran his hands through his shoulder length hair, laying his head back on his pillow. His eyelids lowered slightly as he watched his brother pull on his clothes, a toothbrush hanging out the corner of his mouth. Lifting his left arm above his head he glanced at his watch, and then looked over at his brother once more.

"Since when do you get up early?" He asked voice groggy. It caught Zack's attention who turned and continued to hold the toothbrush at the side of his mouth. Cody looked away in disgust as a line of drool seeped out of his brother's mouth and fell to the floor. As usual, Zack didn't bother to clean it up.

"Staying with the Jacksons all summer will make you change your habits," Zack mumbled, rubbing at his eye. "I swear to God they're robots or something. They get up early and have a schedule to fill their day. It's no wonder they can't ever sit still." He rolled his eyes then walked over to his brother's bed, sitting down on the end. "So today's going to be the first day you've seen Bailey in a while. What are you going to do?"

Cody glared so fiercely at his brother that he got up from the bed in one quick movement, holding his hands up defensively. "Sorry. I was just asking a question." Cody shook his head and sat up, running his hands over his face. "You're going to have to see her at some point and considering we've all been back in Boston for a couple of days now, trying to lie low and hope that we can get a little bit of normalcy, you're going to have to talk to her at some point."

"I know." With the finality in his tone, Cody got up from his bed and walked over to the dresser, pulling out a simple blue t-shirt and brown cargo shorts. After quickly changing into them, he picked up his brush and started to run it through his hair, staring at his reflection. Every freckle that was starting to disappear as he aged proved that his childhood was really being left behind, replaced by the scars and marks that were reminiscent of every battle and moment he had to grow up through. Each and every one was tougher than the last, even having to find himself through the throws of adolescence—which he found to be more challenging at times. "Especially considering we all need to talk about Mother Nature and everything."

"That's something I'd rather _not_ think about," Zack murmured, his hand instinctively going to his cheek. He dropped it as if he had just burned himself and then went over to his brother, clasping him on the shoulder. "I'm sure there's something that we can find that'll take our mind off it. Let's go see what Esteban is serving for breakfast today."

Cody's nose wrinkled. He turned to Zack, tying his hair back into a ponytail. "You hate the breakfast food here. You say the eggs are bland, the toast is too dry and crumbly, and that the oatmeal is all lumps." He rolled his eyes. "Somehow you even convinced some of the younger kids here that they actually serve eyeballs in it."

"It's Esteban; you know where he's from!" Zack threw his hands into the air. "What do you think is actually going to be in there? His best friend is a chicken you know." He went back over to his bed and sat down, pulling on his shoes. "I mean, he does a good job at running the hotel, even better than Moseby, we certainly got away with more stuff. But I draw the line at the food." He made a motion of drawing a line across his throat and laughed.

"Good to know that you still have a sense of humor," Cody mumbled.

A heavy silence filled the room. Zack twisted his mouth to the side and watched his brother as he continued to nervously run his hands over his hair, as if he still wasn't used to the long locks that now reached his shoulders. It was funny in a way, the two of them had—even he knew it was stupid—longer hair when they were fourteen and constantly mistaken for girls, and now he was worried about what he looked like now? They had faced death so many times and he still cared about his appearance. Zack had thrown that out the window ages ago.

After having millions of people all over the world watch the broadcasted fight, why did any of that matter anymore?

Zack got up and grabbed onto Cody's shoulders. He dug his fingers in and pulled him away from the mirror, propelling him out the door and towards the front of the suite. "Whatever, come indulge in some gross food with me or you're going to crack the mirror." Cody swatted his brother not he arm. The two left their bedroom to find Blazen and Phantom inside an open cabinet. Cody held out his arm. "C'mon guys, we're going to get something to eat."

"Thank you." Phantom spread his wings and soared over to Cody, landing on his outstretched arm. "We were just saying that we didn't want to have to live off of chips for the rest of our lives."

"You don't even have any Twinkies," Blazen added. He flew over and landed on Zack's head, lightly poking him with his beak. "Those are my favorites."

"Mine too, buddy, but they don't make those anymore," Zack said. He and Cody laughed at Blazen's startled gasp as they left the apartment. "Trust me; I was just as upset as you were."

Cody rolled his eyes an exchanged a glance with Phantom. "He even went out and bought out the Paul Revere mini mart of all of the Twinkies, ate half of them, and sold the other half to whoever would pay him top dollar for it."

"Oh! So you're rich now?!" Blazen asked. He leaned over and placed his face in front of Zack's, turning his head so that an eagle eye was staring directly on Zack's own baby blues.

Cody laughed loudly. "Not even close, Blazen, but that's a nice thought." Cody pressed the call button on the elevator and the two stepped inside.

Once the doors closed and the elevator lowered to the ground floor, Cody could immediately feel his guardian tense and place his talons tighter into his arm. Cody reached out a hand and gently ran his fingers over Phantom's back, hoping to calm him down. He understood how the guardian felt at times. They were so used to roaming free, being able to go anywhere and do whatever they wanted. Even when the teens were all at school the guardians would either wait inside their masters and mistresses or wait back at their homes, hidden from sight until their families or anyone that could see them left.

He felt the same way now, though in the opposite direction. He had been so used to hiding everything, having to run off at a moment's notice, not knowing if those at WingzCorp would be smart enough to attack during school, hiding a big part of himself. Now that it was all out in the open, he wanted nothing more to do than shut himself out and not have everyone look at him so differently.

As a hero.

_Yeah, right._

Cody scratched his neck, feeling the puffy skin under his fingers and immediately flashed back.

The energy from the element stone had been stronger than he anticipated. Once he felt all of the energy flow through is body he rushed towards an arbori; one of the green toned humans made completely of plants and vegetation. His speed had been enhanced even further, causing him to move so fast he couldn't control it. Instead of smacking straight into the arboris with a solid punch like he anticipated, he lost his footing and fell heavily on his side into a parked car. The car practically fell to debris under the force of Cody's slam. Before he could raise his hands, the arboris was on him, hands turning into vines and wrapping around his neck tightly.

Cody raised his hands as they glowed a bright blue and he blasted out hard balls of water at the arboris. Instead of knocking it back like he anticipated the seemed to harmlessly deflect off the arbori and flew off to the side. All around him Cody could hear the sound of his friends fighting; their grunts of effort and pain encircled the area. Even the sound of the helicopter's rotary blades was drowned out. Everything started to muffle around him as the vines started to squeeze tighter and tighter by the second. Cody reached up his hands and grabbed onto the vines. Muscles bulging with the effort, he started to pull, trying to force them away from his neck. He could feel the vines starting to dig painfully into his neck, stinging the harder he pulled.

Finally with a loud cracking sound as he broke the ropey strands, Cody pulled the arbori off of him. Bringing his right arm back he shot it forward, encompassing the arbori in water and a blue beam of energy. When he lowered his hand, the arbori was reduced to a smoking pile of leaves. Cody lowered his right hand and lifted his left to his neck. His skin was slippery with the blood that coated his fingers when he pulled his hand way. The cut wasn't too deep, nothing that needed immediate medical attention, or what a quick healing could do.

Cody pushed himself off the car and looked around him, his eyes moving to the portal that had opened in the sky. The arboris continued to steam out of it, it seemed there wasn't an end in sight, no matter how hard his friends were fighting. And then there was Mother Nature in the middle of it wall, watching with a heated smile of satisfaction.

He knew that he would never get the look of that smile out of his head. No matter what amazing memories and experiences he could potentially experience that would outrank them, there were always some things that would be stuck.

The doors to the elevator opened and Zack and Cody barely managed to squeeze out before racks and racks of clothing were shoved inside by the bell boys. Cody exchanged a glance with his brother then followed the path of oncoming dresses and skirts to see where they were coming from.

"Be careful with that! It certainly costs more than what you're wearing and it's still as hideous as ever!" Cody's mouth dropped open when he recognized London Tipton's loud shriek. Comically, he rubbed his eyes, trying to discern whether or not he really was seeing what he was seeing. Or, as the case was, _whom _he was seeing.

London Tipton followed the bell boys through the lobby, watching to be sure they didn't mess up her clothes or scratch up the clothes rack they were hanging on. Cody was even sure that the rack was made of the best silver money could buy. It wouldn't surprise him. The image of London being in the Tipton hotel was what did surprise him. He hadn't seen them in years…two years at this point, ever since they had left the SS Tipton to try and fight off Zhane, who was under the control of Gattaca at the time.

"London!" Zack cried, getting her attention as she passed.

She turned and looked at the two boys with a blank expression on her face before smiling. "Cody! Zack! How are you guys? Aren't you glad the stupid sea school is over?"

Cody resisted the urge to roll his eyes. London's constant mixing up of his name didn't bother him now so much as it had done before. He always wondered what had happened to them when Zhane had attacked them when they were on the ship. Back when things first started, before Bailey had known about their powers, before they found out about Geneva and Gattaca, before Koto's and Max's deaths, before they had been detained by the government, before they had found the element stones, before…everything. It always sat in the back of his mind, where were London, Mr. Moseby, Woody, Addison, Marcus? Now she was back at the Tipton hotel as if nothing happened, as if they had never gone in the first place.

"I'm Cody," he corrected her quickly. Licking his lips, he exchanged a glance with Zack before stepping over to her. "Yeah, graduation must have been pretty good," he said with a half smile. "I bet you're glad that you're finally able to get away for good."

London rolled her eyes. "I wish," she snorted. "Daddy's making me go until graduation and that's not for another two years." She nudged Zack on the arm. "Geez and I thought he was the smart one." Rolling her eyes, she turned back towards the candy counter desk where a young brunette man was stocking the shelves. "Ugh. When is Maddie going to get back from college? I'm sure she would have been bored without me being her roommate. Who else is she going to spend her first year with?"

"First year?" Zack repeated.

But London's attention had turned form the twin boys and back to her clothes as they were finished being put into the elevator. She then stepped into the other waiting one and went up to her penthouse suite. Cody slowly turned from the elevators, his eyes narrowing as he did so. Something wasn't right here.

"What's wrong?" Phantom asked. He feathers started to puff out, like they always did when he was aware that Cody was having nervous or ill feelings. "I can feel it. Something's wrong."

"London has never really been that bright, but she said something extremely weird right now," Cody said, scratching the back of his head.

"What did she mean that it was Maddie's first year on college? She's getting out next year," Zack said slowly. His eyes were narrowed a well, rivaling the expression of extreme suspicion that Cody was feeling. "And…she should be graduating now. I mean,"—he gestured to Cody—"like you said, London isn't necessarily bright, but even she would know when she should be graduating so she can finally leave that place. Hell, God knows we've heard it enough."

_That's what I was thinking, _Cody slowly nodded, his eyes moving around the lobby of the Tipton hotel. He couldn't help but get a feeling that something was wrong. He had become adept to noticing it at that point.

/_What are you thinking, Master Cody?_ / Phantom asked him telepathically.

/_That there's no way that London is that dumb. Otherwise, I have no explanation for it._ / Cody continued to watch the lobby. But for what? Some sort of a bomb blast that would blow up the ceiling? A meteor to come crashing through the windows? For Core to suddenly come back, guns blazing and to kidnap more people to use against them? Or for some sort of wave of darkness to take everything out in one swing? He even expected the Earth to suddenly fall into the sky, anything but for things around to be considered normal.

A familiar call sliced through the air, "Oh, Mr. Moseby!"

Zack and Cody shot their gaze over to the front of the Tipton hotel where Marion Moseby strode through the revolving doors, nodding at Norman the doorman as he went. Cody felt his mouth drop open as he looked over at his brother. The same thought shot between the two of them.

_What the hell?_

"Esteban, I hope things have been treating you well while I was gone," Mr. Moseby practically sang as he walked across the hotel lobby and over to the former bell boy as he stood behind the front desk. With a large smile, he gently rested his arms on the counter top. "I've heard nothing but good things."

"That's so nice to hear from _you_, Mr. Moseby," Esteban continued. "And I will be glad to give you your job of having the day manager job back." He puffed up the front of his dress shirt. "I can only do as well as you if I watch the best."

Mr. Moseby smiled. "You're doing fine." He took a step back away from him the desk. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to see how the other employees are doing then I will go back to my apartment and spend the summer to myself." He turned on his heel and stopped short when he spotted Zack and Cody. A mixture of a grimace and a growl crossed Mr. Moseby's face before he stalked over to them with a tight lipped smile. "I know that you boys still have two years left on the SS Tipton and I bet you're glad to be back here, but please stay away from me over the summer. I need to have _some _peace and quiet from you teenagers at some point."

Before Zack or Cody could respond, Mr. Moseby walked by them and walked over to the candy counter and spoke with the young man there before disappearing around the corner towards the kitchen.

"Geez," Blazen said as soon as Mr. Moseby was out of earshot. "I forgot that guy was so snappy! He needs a good fire set underneath him."

"Or a way to cool off," Phantom agreed.

"Don't even think about it," Zack warned his guardian. He placed his hands on his hips, craning his neck to look up at him. "I can't take you anywhere. You're always getting into some sort of trouble," he scolded him. Blazen didn't seem to care about the fatherly tone Zack was giving him.

"In case you've forgotten, I'm the same age as you and I take a bit of your personality. So if there's anyone that always gets into some sort of trouble, it's _you_!" Blazen painfully poked Zack on the top of the head, snagging a few of Zack's blonde hair in his beak. A mischievous glint filled his eye as he spat the hair back to the ground.

Zack ignored Blazen and turned back to Cody. "So are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Yeah," Cody said slowly. "A major case of déjà vu."

* * *

**A/N: **Looking over it again, I realized there were a few plot pints in _Mystic Melody _that that I had dropped without noticing. So they're going to be reappearing as the story goes on; as you can see when I finally explained what happened to those that were on the SS Tipton. And with that, the story now officially starts, so things are going to be more fast paced from here on out.

Also, some things that happened in real life (like the Twinkies thing) obviously don't fit in a correct timeline with this story, but its fiction and I can do what I want. Haha.

Cheers,

-Riles


	5. Our vacation's over

CHAPTER FOUR

* * *

"Tapeworm, c'mon or we're going to be late," Bailey called, pulling her hair over one shoulder. She smoothed down the flyaway pieces that escaped the hair style. Pursing her lips, she brought down the ends of her hair towards her face, studying each strand. The old honey brown color had been changed with a dark, somewhat candy apple red. She loved the color as soon as she had seen the box in the Rite Aid and figured it was time for a change.

_After everything that happened everyone needs a change, _Bailey thought, lowering her head. Placing her hands on her hips she focused not he power that was inside her because of Geneva and Gattaca still being with her. She thought that after what had happened with their mother, they would have left her. And yet, two of the guardians of the Element World were still around. _Don't question_ it _Bailey, it's just going to cause problems for you later._

Tapeworm gave her a funny look as he rounded the corner from the kitchen, carrying Ursa, in his small form, in his arms. The small bear was holding onto a couple of strawberries, shoving the last few pieces into his mouth, noisily licking his paw afterwards as he did so. "You do realize that it would really only take me about ten seconds to get there while you have no choice but to walk."

"Yes," Bailey agreed. She crossed her arms, her smile turning to a smug one. "But it'd be rude if you had me walk the streets of Boston alone, you never know what can happen." The two smirked at each other. As if a robber or anyone that tired to mug them would be difficult to get away from. Reaching up a hand, she clapped Tapeworm on the shoulder, leading him towards the door. "C'mon, let's go."

"Mom, Dad, we're headed to the park," Tapeworm called as the two slid out the front door. "We'll be back later." He paused, waiting to hear his mother's shout of, "OK, have fun," to come back, before the two slid out the door. The two walked down the front steps and headed in the direction of Liberty Park.

Bailey took in the sights of the reconstruction that was going on as she went. It had only been a couple of months but a lot of the city was already starting to go back to the way it was. No one was afraid to go outside; no one was looking over their shoulder as much as often. They barely blinked at the sound of a helicopter or airplane flying by overheard. The news was always talking about the relief effort in the city as well as news coming from the nation's capital about the existence of Elementals and what it means for those that may be awakening.

It was nice to see that they were doing so much to make things better for the Elementals, but at the same time, she didn't like the constant attention. She didn't like being known as 'Bailey Pickett' as opposed to being just Bailey. It was funny, when she had gotten on the SS Tipton for the first time her dream was to be able to see the world and make friends along the way. If she knew it included having her life threatened on numerous occasions, protecting the world, and making some of the most difficult decisions she ever had to face, she probably wouldn't have agreed to do it.

_They do say hindsight is 20/20, _Bailey reminded herself. _But what does that mean for those we had to lose along the way? They didn't expect any of that to happen, so why were we the ones that were able to survive the whole thing and others weren't? _With that thought, Bailey peeked at Tapeworm, who walked beside her with a slight swag to his step, as if everything around him wasn't going on. In a way it made sense, he had probably lost more than everyone else had in the past couple of years, and yet he was still able to continue to use his smarts to help everyone and keep a smile on his face. _Though there was a time there where he seemed really…dark. You have to admit that Bailey._

_'From what I've seen of you humans, that doesn't mean anything more than you just being in a bad place,' _Geneva reminded her, her voice swirling through Bailey's head.

_And there's more that he's seen when he was, in a dreamlike state, transported to the Element World,' _Gattaca agreed. _Being a human…more or less, and going there. It's more jarring than you'd expect. Our worlds are similar, but they're so different._

"You're right," Bailey murmured.

"What?" Tapeworm looked over at her, shifting Ursa from his arms up to his shoulder. Bailey blushed, lowering her gaze to her feet. She ignored the waves that construction workers sent her and Tapeworm as they passed the scaffolding the men were working on. The increase of attention she still wasn't used to or even particularly liked but it was part of her life now.

"Sorry," Bailey apologized. "I guess I was speaking out loud." She shook her head before lifting it up towards the sky. The clouds hung low over the sky. "I was talking to Geneva and Gattaca…how things have changed. How the Element World is different than here." Tapeworm slowly nodded, his eyes shifting away from the teenage girl. "Do you remember anything from being there?" She pressed gently. She didn't want to make him uncomfortable or angry or depressed in any way. He had been so good with the subject before, but grief worked in mysterious ways. Who knew what was going through his head as of late.

Tapeworm reached up and scratched the back of his head, gently sucking his bottom lip into his mouth as he thought. About what, Bailey wondered. The best way to talk about it without saying everything that he had seen with his own two eyes?

"There was a door of darkness, I remember that clearly," Tapeworm said. Instinctively, he shoved his hands into his jeans pockets as he leaned forward, hunching his shoulders as he did so. It was an obvious way for him to find a comfortable position in an uncomfortable conversation. "There was also a strange voice that went along with the door to darkness and seemed to follow me around. It was haunting in a way and I never really understood why I was able to hear it. Next thing I know, I was transported to the Element World and it looked so different but felt like home. People around were so happy and they knew what they were doing. They had their own jobs that their powers dealt with. The ones that controlled fire were blacksmiths as they could easily forge things, the people that controlled water could control the weather around hem so that if it had been too long without a good rainfall they could deal with that. There were homes scattered around, a large castle in the distance, and everyone just seems so happy. It really feels like a community."

Tapeworm smiled a little. "Then I saw the nursery." He held up a finger. "And this is the part that I thought was weird, but so cool at the same time." Bailey nodded for him to continue, waiting in anticipation. "The nursery was a place that seemed like it was in a cave. The women who were pregnant and were about to give birth to their children would go and the nurses, or medicine women, or maybe they're mystics or something, would lie them down, give them some sort of concoction that would make take their mind off the pain, and the women would give birth. The baby would then be wrapped up and placed in a basinet and be watched over, just like us humans would be." He swallowed thickly. "I went there…and I say Canis."

Bailey's eyes widened.

"She was there. I know it was her, especially since we know that the guardians can reincarnate themselves if the humans die. But if the guardian dies…then they're gone forever. I looked into her bassinet and I recognized her as Canis, especially from her markings. Then I heard a specific drumming sound, like a rhythm that everyone reacted to. The women in the cave all moved towards the back wall, the babies were shifted over so they weren't in the cover of the cave and when I went outside, I saw a warrior. I think he was anyway, he had some armor on. He moved to block the entrance to the cave. The drums sounded again and everyone jumped into action. The men started to get fall into a sort of formation and that was only moments before all hell broke loose. The arboris started to attack and next thing I knew, I saw nothing but different element attacks being flung around everywhere to fend them off. I even saw Blazen's and Phantom's mother."

"Wow." It was the only thing Bailey could think of that would eloquently describe everything she felt when hearing Tapeworm's explanation. It just left so many questions. "Wait, so does that mean everyone in the Element world is an Elemental?"

"No," Tapeworm said without an ounce of hesitation. "There are normal humans there too. Just like there are normal animals." He glanced up at Ursa, who continued to hang off the side of his head, his tiny claws gently gripping his master's shorter hair. "So that's probably how it goes to the elemental down on Earth getting a guardian."

"But it still doesn't explain what makes it that there are Elementals that exist on Earth as well as those that are only in the Element world," Bailey said. "Like, what is it that dictates the worlds being two completely different things?"

"Maybe that's what the portal was," Tapeworm suggested. "When we were fighting Mother Nature. Maybe her portal was furthering the collapse of the Element World."

"Maybe it wasn't collapsing," Bailey shot back. "It might have been going back to its normal place."

Her sentence hung in the air as the two arrived at Liberty Park and turned, walking down the path. There were many possibilities that they hadn't thought of yet and coming up with more was just risking the chance for them to have more to work through .Even Christian's experiments as well as his knowledge on the Element World was something constantly being tested. That's why he had been so eager to travel through Canada and even taking a quick stop to DC to see what had changed and what was being done about the existence of Elementals.

_As a scientist himself, he must be curious about everything that's going on as well, _Bailey thought. Her thoughts were broken into by a loud cry of happiness moments before she spotted her friends, all scattered around, sitting underneath the largest tree in the park. The loud cry had been from Sydney as he was hurrying over to the two to greet them. Aaron was twisted to the side, pointing in their direction, possibly having heard them before they had even been spotted.

Bailey felt a small smile slide on her face as he saw all of her friends turning and waving at them as well. All of the friends she had met once everything on the SS Tipton had started. Everyone but Max. It was then that she had been struck with how much things had changed in those past few years. She had been the girl who believed in fairytales, the ones that always said 'never say never' whenever a difficult situation came upon her. She was the positive girl that would take everything that came to her and do her best with it as she wasn't one to back down from a challenge.

Unfortunately she found that optimism wasn't enough. Nothing was enough to stop the passage of time. The old, positive girl that she had been was gone, dead and gone. In her place was the girl who questioned the world and everything in it simply because she didn't know what was real and what was fake anymore. She didn't trust anyone around her, she couldn't. She could only trust her friends and even then that was hard, as they all had their own agendas when it came to the future of their powers and what it meant now that the whole world knew about them.

She could still remember standing on the rooftop of the Tipton hotel and looking right into the camera as the news copter flew by; taking in every image they could of the battle going on below. She still didn't know what to think about it. It wasn't the point of conversation and probably never would be.

"Hey!" Bailey wrapped her arms around the younger boy, giving him a tight hug before he moved onto Tapeworm and did the same. She was glad the years of this hadn't made him lose his personable personality. "Hey guys, how is everyone?" She and Tapeworm walked over to the group and sat down in the two spaces left over, in between Cody and Noah.

Bailey couldn't help but look at Cody, to see how he was, and his eyes met hers. She immediately turned away, smoothing her long skirt over her knees as she sat Indian style on the ground. Her knee bumped his and he moved it away from her. Bailey sighed.

"See, Cody, I told you," Zack said. He nudged Cody with his elbow and pointed at Bailey. "At some point everyone was going to be copying your hairstyle when you turned your hair red." He paused, glancing at Bailey once more, smiling warmly. "Though it looks a _lot _better on her."

"And of course that's just Zack's way of saying 'welcome back'," Noah said in his soft voice.

Bailey rolled her eyes before addressing the older blond. "We weren't the ones that left," she reminded him.

"That's right," Sydney agreed. "How's school going?"

"Fine." Bailey kept it at that. Beside her, she could feel Cody shifting in the grass, moving to sit in an Indian style position as well. But he had his chin resting in the palm of his hand. She knew how badly he had wanted to go to Yale as it was his life dream. But he had been the one to decide not to apply, he had said so himself before they had split for the summer. So why was he still taking it out on her? Or maybe he wasn't and she was just being paranoid. _It wouldn't be the first time, _Bailey thought. "It's fine. Kind of hard to go around with everyone knowing my name, though." She then addressed the Jacksons. "I don't know how you do it."

"You get used to it after a while," Rhuben remarked. She had her hands in her lap, running her fingers over DeathLiger's back as he laid curled up, eyes closed at the comforting touch. "Even with the people wanting nothing but your name on a sheet of paper."

"You make it sound so bad," Zack said. He stretched out his legs, resting his arms up behind his head, lacing his fingers together, resting against the tree trunk. "All the more reason to charge them for it. They're wasting your time; you should make some sort of profit off of it."

"Figures you'd see it that way," Patrick remarked with a half smile as she look over at his eldest sister. She merely lifted her left shoulder in a shrug then said, "He got me for his looks."

"I knew it!" Zack beamed.

"Yeah, I usually put high importance on physical attractiveness but I made an exception for you." She smiled wickedly at her boyfriend, who rolled his eyes, before turning her gaze to the rest of the group. "So I guess we all know why we're here. To catch up with everything after Mother Nature." She wrapped her arms around her legs. "While we were home we went back to Dad's office to see if there was anything else we could find out," she said mysteriously. She exchanged glances with her siblings. "And I think we got more than we bargained for."

"Same here," Crystal agreed. She turned behind her and picked up the computer that had been from her father, holding all of the information that he had gathered while he was still working with his late brother in law, Reed, and their friend Nathan Reeves. Or as the kids knew him, Core.

_I wonder what happened to him, _Bailey thought, suddenly struck with the notion that they hadn't seen him in a while.

'_I wouldn't worry about him, Child,' _Gattaca said.

_'You have more pressing matters to deal with,' _Geneva agreed.

"There was already a lot that we knew from what we've experienced and from what Dad has told me over the years," Crystal continued. She pulled open an excel spreadsheet on her computer and turned it around, pointing at a few rows and columns. "These are the names and contact information of those that were at the different symposiums and conferences we went to. Some of them are in the DC area; others are spread around the world. But they've brought a lot of insight into the things that have been going on."

"What does it mean for us now though?" Tapeworm's eyebrows furrowed together. "Has there been any progress with the way that Elementals are going to be treated?" He shrugged. "I mean, we're considered celebrities now, but what happens when the popularity goes away and they turn on us."

Cody stiffened. "You really think they would?" His voice was low, almost in a dangerous tone.

"It's been known to happen," Tapeworm replied.

"Yeah, I think that's what they call assassinations," Sydney added with a sarcastic edge to his tone. "Some of which you may be aware of such as JFK and Arch Duke Ferdinand." He held up a finger. "Wars have come out of lesser things."

"Thanks for that depressing anecdote, Little Man," Noah murmured.

Bailey giggled, holding her hand up over her mouth. She pushed her long hair over her shoulder once more, starting to dig her finger in the ground. What would be different? She thought she would be spared, in fact, if things did go south. She had no powers, she wasn't an Elemental .She just had two of the guardians of the world inside her. She couldn't control them or the power they had, she was just harboring them. It was a selfish thought, really. That she would be spared if something happened to the others. They had all worked so well together, so how did that suddenly pop into her head?

"He's got a point though," Rhuben defended him.

There was another brief moment of silence.

"Zack and I have some news," Cody said slowly. It sounded like he still didn't believe what he was about to say. Bailey had been with him long enough to know that he was anxious. Just by looking she could tell; his eyes were blinking rapidly and he was tearing handfuls of grass from the ground, tossing it aside. Apart from a long list of his many allergies and medications, Cody showed his anxiety in his face and the fluttering lashes was always the first sign of his distress. The other being that Cody was someone that cared about the environment, the ecosystem, and everything scientific about it. So she knew that he was violating a lot of his ideals, especially since he was technically killing the grass. "And it's really strange; even I can't wrap my head around it."

"Don't worry about it, mate," Patrick reassured him with a lazy wave of his hand. "I can't wrap my head around a lot of stuff either."

"And that explains so much," Noah commented.

Cody gave a half smile. He lifted his head, locking eyes with Zack, who nodded. Cody continued, "We were going down to the lobby to meet you all here…and then we saw Mr. Moseby and London."

"They finally made it back?" Crystal's eyebrows rose. Relief washed over her and her shoulders slumped as a peaceful smile slid onto her face. It was the most serene she had been in a while. "That's good news. I hadn't heard anything about the SS Tipton in a while; no matter what I searched, nothing came up."

"That's not the strange part," Zack interrupted. "Mr. Moseby and London were as crazy as they always were." He tilted his head to the side, looking concerned. His eyebrows were lowered and along with his tightened mouth, Bailey knew something was really wrong. "It was as if no time had passed since they were gone. London was complaining about Maddie being in her first year of college and Mr. Moseby was talking about how he didn't want to have to spend more years with us on the ship."

"You have to admit that London has never been the brightest bulb in the lamp," Aaron pointed out. He paused. "But compared to Patrick that's saying something."

"Hey!"

Bailey laughed along with the others. "And I've seen Mr. Moseby counting down the days of when you'd finally graduate so why is this any different?"

"You don't get it," Cody said quickly, barely letting Bailey able to finish her sentence. "It's, like, with the two of them, time hasn't passed at all. For them they just finished their first year not he boat and we've graduated from high school already." Cody tugged at the ends of his long hair. "Like time completely stopped."

"Well, I wouldn't say it's completely unfounded," Noah said. He had stretched out and was lying on his side, resting his cheek on his upraised hand. "With the Element World being, in a way, a different dimension, how does that stop anyone from knowing that there are others out there we don't know of? Maybe the SS Tipton got stuck in a time warp."

"Or maybe it's something else," Sydney said quietly.

Rhuben started to say something then stopped, her eyelids lowering, eyes rapidly moving back and forth. DeathLiger jumped out of her lap and started to growl, turning into his large form. Reihu, who had been resting up on a branch of the tree, listening, growled as well, leaping out of the tree and turning into a lion as well. The other guardians appeared, turning into their beast forms and joining DeathLiger and Reihu, all glaring in the direction behind them.

Bailey scrambled to her feet and turned in the direction that the guardians were facing, eyes moving all over the place for movement. She couldn't see anything. "What are you—"

"Look out!" Patrick shouted.

He, Noah, Zack, and Cody all sprouted wings from their backs and blasted high into the air, Rhuben whirled around and reached out, diving towards the tree. Once she reached the shadow she disappeared into the ground. Sydney summoned his staff and pushed Aaron on top of it before climbing on himself and taking off up into the air as well. Riley and Crystal jumped onto the backs of their guardians, pulling Tapeworm and Bailey on as well, and DalFang and Dricer beat their large wings down lifting the wolf and tiger up into the air.

Bailey held tightly onto DalFang's fur as they rose up to the height the boys were. A fall from that distance from the ground would be pretty nasty, Elemental or not. Below her, Bailey watched as something black rocketed into the tree they had just been lying against and blew up the tree. Holding her breath, Bailey watched as the smoke cleared then breathed a sigh of relief when Rhuben came out from the ground, unharmed. She climbed onto DeathLiger's back and was soon with them as well.

"Did you get a good look?" Zack asked her.

Rhuben shook her head. "No, but it looked like canon fire to me."

"That was no canon, Sis," Sydney contradicted her. "It was a smoke bomb."

Bailey turned back to Zack and Cody. Cody's wings gently brushed up and down as his eyes narrowed. He cocked his head to the side and stared hard in front of him. They others knew from his enhanced abilities of having a guardian that was an eagle, his eye sight was increased as well. It gave him the ability to see up to a mile ahead of him if he tried, and from where she was sitting, Bailey could see that his eyes had changed from that of a human's to that of a bird of prey. It was strange yet fascinating at the same time.

"Oh God," he breathed, eyes returning to normal. "We've got trouble. I don't know who it is exactly, but I'm sure not everyone in the world is glad to know we're here."

"What does that mean?" Riley snapped impatiently. Her hands were glowing red and Bailey could see flames started to encircle them, little licks of the fire flickered here and there, strengthening as the seconds passed.

"It means our vacation's over," Zack replied, his eyes glowing red as well. His lips slowly curled up in a menacing smile.

* * *

**A/N: **Marvel movies have increased my motivation for this story, though most of them do. As I said last time things really pick up and they were really fast-paced here. I bet you didn't expect them to get attacked so quickly/so early in the story, but I had to keep your attention somehow. I can't wait for the next chapter because I haven't written a fighting scene in a while.

Cheers,

-Riles


	6. Time Stop

CHAPTER FIVE

* * *

Zack looked over at Cody and the twin boys glanced at Patrick and Noah as well before they wet blasting forward, their powerful wings increasing their speed as the seconds passed. Zack was always aware of the different air currents at different heights, and while he would periodically shift up and down to keep on the different air tracks he became aware of a blast of wind in their faces, slowing them down.

"What is that?" Noah called, his quieter vice almost lost over the wind. Zack knew he had to practically bellow to be heard; whatever was ahead of them must have been big.

"No idea," Zack called back. His hands started to glow red seconds before becoming engulfed in flames. "Don't let your guard down, though. It could be anything." As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Cody pushed him out of the way as a black ball came rocketing between them. Cody spun around and shot a rush of hard water at the ball, causing it to implode in mid-air. "Another smoke bomb?"

"That's not smoke man," Patrick said. He shook his head before moving his hands over his mouth. "That's actual smoke; I can smell the carcinogens in it as well. It's an actual bomb." His eyes shifted for a moment before he gave a jovial smile, which was inappropriate for the situation. "These guys are finally stepping up and trying to blow us out of the air. I'm impressed."

"Don't be," Zack said firmly.

Part of him wanted to laugh and smile as well. Not only did it actually feel good to be back to fighting; as much as he liked being able to have time off, he liked the hand to hand combat as well as the feeling of knowing how strong he was. Alternatively, it was interesting; in a way to know that whoever was really trying to get rid of them was starting to think about different ways to really defeat them. He couldn't stop the millions of thoughts that ran through his head, many of them having to be with who could be after them this time? The Elemental beings appeared to be gone and everyone else around the city, if not the world, appeared to worship them in some way. He had seen early on, however, that as many people loved you, there were going to be come that hated you.

_And Mom said spending so much time watching Wrestling was going to be bad for me, _Zack thought with a slight smirk. He, Cody, Patrick, and Noah continued flying until he felt a distinct change in the air around them. Coming to a quick stop, Patrick almost crashed into him and had to fly directly upwards to avoid a collision.

_/What is it, Zack? / _Blazen asked.

/_You don't feel that? / _Zack replied, his eyes slowly shifting back and forth. He frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. "Whatever it is, it must be pretty far, if you couldn't see it back there. We must have been going for over a mile by now." He flicked his hair out of his face. "I can't even see anything."

Cody raised a hand and rubbed his chin. "Maybe it's just—"He was cut off by one of the bomb hitting him in the stomach.

Zack immediately turned away as a burst of fire rushed towards him. He could deal with the extreme heat, something he enjoyed about having his fire powers being that he could even handle things right out of the oven or even lie on the burning asphalt without a shirt without being burned. However it didn't come without some sort of consequence, if he got too warm it would eventually become dangerous to his health as he learned once, running around with almost a 104 degree fever and not feeling any different. The other being that if he got too much sun he became sluggish and lazy.

It didn't mean he couldn't absorb it either. After shielding his face, Zack turned back around and held out his hands, taking in the fire that exploded around Cody. "Cody, are you ok?" He called.

The dust cleared and Cody lowered his arms, dropping the large bubble of water that had covered him. "I'm good," he replied.

"Head's up!" Noah's voice caught their attention. He held out his hand. "Thorned Affection!" His weapon, a large hammer, appeared in his hands. He pulled his arms back, as if he was holding a baseball bat, and with a cry of effort, he swung it forward and blasted another bomb back towards the direction it came.

Patrick floated back down from above the three. "Guys! There are a _bunch _of helicopters heading this way. And by a bunch; I mean there are a _lot_!" He started to fly backwards, his large, leathery dragon wings encompassing around him. "We're going to need the others' help."

"Let's go!" Zack agreed. The four boys flew back towards their friends, who were still waiting for them. They all landed on the ground, waiting for whatever it was that Zack had to say. "There are a lot of helicopters headed this way and there are some guys in there with smoke bombs and regular bombs."

"So whoever they are, they really want to get rid of us," Crystal said. She bobbed her head back and forth. "What else is new?"

"My thoughts exactly," Rhuben agreed. Her hands started to glow a dark mixture of purple and black.

"Don't hold back guys, whoever this is, whatever they're working with, they're going to do their best to see that we're destroyed." He slowly smiled. "Let's give them a run for their money." The sound of the rotary blades caught his attention once more and he and his friends turned and watched as the copters came over the horizon and flew towards them. There were about twenty of them, each carrying three people, and one being the pilot, the others hanging out the sides.

One, Zack could see, was carrying what looked like a rocket launcher and as far as he was concerned, that's what it was. He turned his head and looked over at Riley, who had moved up to his side. "Flamethrower!" The two cried and thrust their arms forward, sending a stream of fire up towards the leading copter. Riley's flames that held a dark, almost black, tinge around the edge combined with Zack's, which held a lighter color around the edges, forming one stream that engulfed the copter. The burning vehicle crashed to the ground in front of them, the rotary blades having melted and snapped off.

Zack grimaced and looked away from a burning body that had been ejected once the helicopter hit the ground. He hoped at that point he had become desensitized to the whole thing, especially having been shot at and held captive so many times over the years. Nothing was worse than having an innocent life taken, but these were people that willingly risked their lives to entrap them.

"Thunder blast!" Patrick rubbed his hands together; creating friction then shot a bolt of electricity up into the sky. The clouds darkened and large bolts of lightning shot back towards the ground, striking the helicopters and forcing them to the ground as well. "Now we got an even playing field." He cracked his knuckles before charging forward as the men climbed out of the helicopters, weapons drawn. Noah smirked and spun in a quick circle, bringing his arms to his chest then back out, sending a gust of wind filled with bolts of energy forward, cutting through some of the men as well as the helicopter.

"Earth Spirits!" Sydney called, thrusting a hand up into the air. His glowing hand turned from a light blue color to a brown-green. Bringing both hands up, the ground reacted, creating two slabs of condensed dirt out of the ground. Sydney clapped his hands together and the two slabs rocketed into each other, crushing one of the men in between them.

"Rock cracking!" Tapeworm placed his hands on the ground as well and lifted his arms over his head, arms quaking with effort. The ground slowly started to open, and a large boulder came out from underneath the ground. He swung his arms down and the rock flew a few feet before crashing into a helicopter and rolling backwards, knocking a few men out of the way until it came to a stop. Tapeworm then ran forward and brought his arm up, knocking a gun out of a guy's hand. He grabbed onto the man's neck and drove his knee into his gut, knocking him to the ground.

Crystal ran forward and rolled over the back of one man, striking out her foot and catching the other in the face. She created and ice spear in her hand and heaved it at another one that came up on her left. It embedded itself into her shoulder and she created a few more, throwing them at him as well. A few missed but some continued to embed themselves into his arms. She gritted her teeth when he continued to converge upon her. Hands grabbed her arms and forced them behind her back. "Let go!" She wiggled back and forth, struggling to knock the man that held her off. She lowered her head, squeezing her eyes shut, focusing hard. /_Dricer, I need your help_/. She looked up as the man pulled the icicle out of his shoulder and continued towards her, gun drawn.

"Any other sudden movements and you'll regret it."

Crystal smirked, her entire body glowing a bright blue. Dricer, the white tiger, suddenly appeared by her side and roared loudly before bringing up a paw, claws sheathed, and batting the man on the side of the head. The blow knocked him straight to the ground, gurgling as he fell heavily onto his side. Dricer then turned back around, his tail smacking the one that held his mistress and knocked him over. Crystal stumbled forward once her arms were free. "Nice timing." She gave him a quick hug around the neck before swinging up onto his back. Reihu soared overhead, landing on a man and diging his teeth into his neck before turning and pouncing on another one.

Rhuben ducked under a flying fist then shot out her foot, kicking a gun out of her face. "Darkness atom bomb!" She brought her arm back then threw it forward, as if throwing a baseball and launched four balls of energy towards oncoming men that headed towards her. Two crashed into the ground, sending a shower of dirt everywhere. The other two landed on the heads of two men, causing them to scream in pain and fear, bringing their hands up to their heads and falling to their knees. Their screams increased as Rhuben slowly clenched her hands into fists. He waited a few moments then opened her hands, allowing the two men to fall to the ground. She stood over them, looking down into their thousand yard stare.

They weren't going to recover from it.

Bailey, having two different being to use the powers from, tapped into Geneva's power and shot beams of white light towards the men whenever they came her way. Each time it would strike something, even one of the men; it would burn a hole through the object. She tried to keep down the wave of nausea that filled her each time she heard a shriek of pain or a scram cut off by her own hand or from around her. Unlike the others she still hadn't become used to her capture becoming a daily occurrence, she wasn't used to having to see so many people die just or become hurt just to stay free. Nevertheless, Bailey continued to fire off the beams whenever someone would come close to grabbing her.

Zack moved as if he was on autopilot, streaming flashes of fire left and right, melting guns whenever he got the chance. Otherwise, close hand to hand combat was the way he preferred to go. It was a way for him, for a moment, to try and get an idea of the one he was attacking. He would away get a good look at the other person's eyes; were they malicious, tired, or holding a sense of fear? More often than not, as he had found from the last battle with Mother Nature, those that were sent in by the SWAT team, the army, or any faction like that, had been young men who were being thrust out into, most likely, their first time going out on the field. He felt bad for those that ended up having to face them, suddenly sucked into a world they never knew existed or had seen before. He usually went easy on them, a broken arm or leg, just so they would be able to live on and hopefully get away from it all.

"Cascade Crush!"

A wave of hard water flew from Zack's right and smacked into a man that was converging on Zack's left. Zack whipped his heard around to see Cody land to the ground by his side, his wings sliding back into his shoulders blades. Cody reached out and nudged his brother in the ribs. "You owe me."

"I owe you a lot," Zack replied. "But not as much as you owe me." To punctuate his point, he turned and thrust out his hand, throwing a ball of fire up into the air. It came back down and landed on the head of a man coming up behind Cody, immediately igniting his entire body. "Case in point."

Zack was suddenly hit on the back of the head, his vision exploding in stars. He rolled onto his back and brought his hands up to shield his face, but stopped when a gun was pointed at him. The man that stood above him glared chest heaving up and down. There was a trail of blood coming down the side of his head. Zack moved his eyes upwards, trying to find Cody, but couldn't see him. All around him he could still hear his friends fighting that gave him a little bit of hope.

"Try it and I'll have a bullet in your brain faster than you can think," the man warned, noticing Zack move to clench his hands.

Zack lay still, allowing the harsh words to settle into his brain. He was stronger than most people, nearly invincible to anything that could come his way. It annoyed him a bit, to think that his life was going to end just by one single bullet. He had broken arms, legs, and bruises, cuts and scars. He had been tortured and held captive, starved for as long as he could remember, having to run from whoever was chasing him, lost his parents because they found out about his powers. And it was all going to end because of a simple bullet. _Talk about ironic, _he thought. _My obsession with drawing guns and stuff for years and it's going to be what kills me._

"Hasn't your mother ever told you not to play with guns?" Zack finally managed to rasp out.

The man smiled the corner of his mouth lifting. Zack was vaguely aware of this finger slightly adding pressure to the trigger. A gun shot rang out and a lightning bolt rushed by Zack and the man so closely that Zack could feel the intense heat coming from it. Seeing that the man had frozen, though the gun was still pointed directly at him, Zack slowly tilted his head back to see Aaron standing up, holding onto a small pistol with both hands. His eyes were trained in his direction so intently Zack was sure that he had suddenly managed to regain his eye sight. Aaron squeezed the trigger once more, but this time a bright beam of light coming out, blinding the man. Zack leaned back on his hand and flipped to his feet, kicking the man between the legs before striking him in the face with a hard drive of his elbow.

The man crumpled to his knees, one hand holding onto his groin. However, it was as if he hadn't noticed his hit to the face as he started to bring the gun back around. Zack leaned back on his right foot, ready to hit the man in the face, and then froze when there was another gun shot. This time, instead of there being a element related bullet flying out of the gun, blood erupted on the front of the man's face and he fell back to the ground.

Zack lowered his foot and whirled around to find a familiar figure walking up to them, holding up an ak-47 as he did so. Zack nodded and gave him a grim smile. "Diamond," he said in greeting.

Diamond nodded back, training his gun on the man.

Zack took a deep breath and looked around. Riley grabbed a man's arm and bent it back far enough until she heard a crack and the man fell to his knees with a scream. She then brought her knee up at the same time she grabbed the back of his shirt and drove his forehead into her knee. The force of the blow as well as the speed she exhibited broke the man's neck. She lifted him up and threw him a few feet away from her before wiping a hand across her forehead, smearing blood as she did so.

"Is everyone OK?" Diamond called, lowering his gun. Now that the danger had passed there was no need for it anymore.

Zack looked back around and let out a sigh of relief when he saw that his friends were OK, walking back to him. Some of them had blood on them, otherwise they all appeared OK. Everyone gathered back around and Zack turned to Diamond, holding out his hand. Diamond took it and shook it firmly before doing the same to Cody. "Perfect timing, didn't think that you'd make it in time," Zack remarked.

Diamond shrugged, reaching up to rub his beard. "I told you before I always had my eyes on you." He lifted the strap of his gun then replaced it, in almost a nonchalant manner. "And I always keep my promises, especially when I'm indebted to someone."

"So what was that?" Bailey asked, bringing her hair back in a ponytail. "I know people want to see what we're up to, but that was different."

"No shit," Riley agreed under her breath, continuing to rub at the blood on her forehead. "I don't think WingzCorp even attacked us that hard before." She lowered her hand, blue eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Of course we knew we didn't have complete clearance from the government or anything—"

"Those are from the government, yes," Diamond interrupted. "But not from any faction I'm familiar with." He walked over to wreckage, where the flames had died down and studied the insignia on the side. He tilted his head to the side. "Might be something new." He then rolled his head back towards the group of teenagers. "Would have been nice to get someone to talk to before you shot them out of the sky."

Patrick raised an eyebrow, placing his hands on his chest. "Excuse me; mate, for thinking it was better to keep my life."

"For once you actually think logically," Noah remarked, then rested his arm on his brother's shoulder. Patrick didn't react to the remark other than a quick roll of his eyes.

Diamond turned back to Aaron, who had his arms at his sides, loosely holding onto the gun. The older man held out his hand and Aaron finally shifted in his direction, placing it in his palm. Diamond looked it over for a few minutes. Sydney took a step forward and spoke up, "I designed it using the energies from each of our powers, having researched them for a while. And with the energy I managed to acquire using machines capable of detecting nano particles and atoms I—"

"Condensed the power of the element to a solid structure so that it is now able to be made into a bullet," Diamond continued. He nodded over at the young boy. "That's genius."

"Aaron helped," Sydney added and the blonde boy gave a slight smile.

"Do you have idea of what's going on?" Cody asked, changing the subject. He glanced around at het carnage that lay by them. "Normally we have some sort of idea as to why we're being attacked, but this time it came out of nowhere."

"Not that we're entirely surprised at this point," Tapeworm agreed.

Diamond nodded. "We have reason to believe that one of the nation's best kept secrets has been realized and they need you all to power it," he said. He pulled a walkie-talkie off of his belt and spoke into it rapidly. Neither Zack nor the others were able to tell what had been said. "C'mon. We need to get out of here before the city's officials try to talk to you. Even with the things they know about Elementals now, it'll take longer than ever to get the paperwork done."

A smile wormed its way onto Zack's face and he and his friends started to follow Diamond out of Liberty Park. Zack looked up at the sky as the sun came back out from behind a cloud, the light coming out as the dark battle had ended._ How symbolic. _He rolled his eyes, suddenly reminded of all of the English classes he had tried to sleep through. _What I wouldn't give to be back there, not worrying about this all the time…not wondering when it will finally end. _Zack lowered his gaze from the sky and scanned the front of the park that had been untouched.

As they neared the entrance he looked at the people that walked by and then did a double take before stopping completely. Had he really seen what he thought he just saw?

"What?" Cody and Bailey flanked his sides. Bailey glanced at him in concern and Cody followed his gaze, trying to see what it was that caused his brother so much distress. "What is it?"

"Zack, are you OK?" Bailey placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently. Out of the corner of his eye, Zack could see Cody watch the movement his frown deepening.

"Cody." Zack turned to his brother, his eyes searching his. Cody looked back at him, eyes narrowing slightly, waiting patiently for Zack to continue. Behind his twin brother, Zack could see Diamond continuing to walk away, knowing that the three would catch up when the time was needed. "I…I think I just saw Mom and Dad."

* * *

Christian took the walkie-talkie back in his drawer and rested his hands in his lap. How could this have happened? How could they have continued to work on those plans when they had been chasing after the kids, after everything that happened in the State House. He should have known it wouldn't be completely forgotten. He let his guard down and now it he was paying the price for it.

_Fuck!_

Christian lowered his forehead to his desk top, taking in a couple of breaths. Once he regained his composure, he lifted his head once more and reached out, picking up a picture frame that had been put facedown and stared at the picture. His eyes moved over the figures in the photograph, causing him to smile at his former self at twenty-two years old, his arms around his best friends, Reed Jackson and Nathan Reeves, as well as Ruriko—who at that time had started to go by Renee—and Kristen standing at the ends. Things had been so much easier back then, where they were shut in their own laboratories, doing whatever research they had been studying at the time.

Who knew it would have all blown up in their faces, leaving him as the last one to survive it all?

Christian replaced the photograph and turned away, going back to his computer. He sucked in a deep breath and licked his lips before moving his fingers at warp speed, traversing deep into the internet as quickly as he could. If he stopped at any moment, he could get caught, taken away, and questioned. After Core's disappearance, he knew Zack, Cody, and the others wouldn't be able to go on. He couldn't be tortured again, he would never give up the information he knew, but if he was held captive like that again…

Christian leaned forward into his computer screen as he came to a locked screen. Gritting his teeth for a moment he leaned to the side and looked at the scarp piece of paper resting beside his computer and fed the complicated code into the computer.

"Yes…"

The whisper that escapes his lips nearly startled him as the room was otherwise silent. Files opened up on the computer screen and he quickly found the one he wanted. As soon as it opened, different scientific journals popped up in his face' top secret videos and documents. As each one passed by and opened for him, he could tell they were all about the same thing. What he and his colleagues had wondered was truly possible. It was the same thing he had been researching around the time his wife and brother and sister in law had been murdered in cold blood.

Time Stop.

* * *

**A/N: **Whoo! Fight scenes! Even though this chapter was from Zack's POV I always preferred to write the fight scenes jump between characters in an abrupt way rather than have scene breaks of smooth transitions. I always found it easier to read. If you don't remember Diamond, he was introduced not he last story as one of the men that was trying to capture Zack, Cody, and the others.

This story is going to have more romance in it, especially considering what they all have gone through has affected them throughout the last few stories. I wanted to really focus on the fights and trying to answer questions. I'm going to try balance it in this story because it's not only psychological, physical, mental, and emotional things they have to go through as their personal relationships are affected as well, as you have seen in recent chapters.

Anyway, I hope you all liked this chapter and I'll update soon. I might even have _Help Me, Save Me _and _Intuition _uploaded soon as I don't want there to be a really long gap between when those start and when _Save Me From Myself _had ended.

Cheers,

-Riles


	7. A Look Into The Past I

CHAPTER SIX

* * *

"Dammit!"

Nathan slapped his hands against the desk, his grey eyes moving around the empty office. He should have known something like this was going to happen .They should have moved sooner. But how soon could they have moved? After they had gotten the news that Professor Trethaway was ill and would be out for a few days, thus giving their classes a substitute teacher, Nathan, Reed, Christian, Ruriko, and Kristin knew it was the perfect timing to go into his office and see if there was anything he knew about Elementals.

And when Nathan arrived, as he was the only one that had the time to go look, he came up on the office. The completely cleared out office. No books on the shelves, no papers festooned on the desk, no computer, no binders, no family pictures, nothing that would distinguish his office from any others. It was wide open, as if waiting for someone to occupy that space and make some sort of mark on their own on the university.

Nathan flopped down onto the floor, further exacerbating the fact that he had taken everything as there was nothing to sit on, and slapped his hands against the floor, furiously biting down on his bottom lip so that it started to bleed. "Dammit!" He cried again. Now proving that his being an elemental was gone, along with everything in the office. What were they going to do now?"

"Hey, we got your message," Christian said as he, Reed, Ruriko, and Kirstin entered the room. He stopped short, looking around. "Whoa."

"He turned tail and ran," Reed noted. He shook his head, brown fringe flying over his face, falling into his blue eyes. "Should have seen it coming." He slapped a fist into an open palm. "He must have known we were close to figuring everything out."

"He was the one that had called you out on studying Elementals for a paper, right?" Kristin pointed out. She raised a hand, placing her finger on her chin. When she spoke next, there was a hint of sarcasm in her tone. "Shocker that he thought you were after him."

"Thanks for that vote of confidence," Nathan replied. He pulled himself off the floor, leaning against the desk behind him. He crossed his arms, starting to tap his fingernails. "Maybe we could get into his computer, even if he tried to clean his hardware, I can easily possess the fragments and restore them to the documents we need."

"Where are you going to get his computer?" Christian reminded him.

"The campus internet server," Ruriko spoke up, raising an eyebrow. All eyes turned to her. "Even if his computer was taken, he had to use the school's server to be able to access his school work as well as to post the course outlines and projects that were needed." She shrugged. "He probably uses the same sort of portal that we need to post our homework."

Nathan chewed his lip again, wincing when it sent a stinging pain to his brain. He was going to have to find a new nervous habit. Lifting his fingers to his lips he wiped away the blood and stared at it for a long time. It was reminded him of the night he was attacked. The exhibition of power had shocked him more than he thought it would. He had been studying Elementals and reincarnation for a while, being shocked was something he hadn't anticipated. Even the videos he had managed to secure from hidden government profiles that he had fist stumbled upon, showcasing the different sort of abilities and imperviousness the Elementals had to everyday things that would cripple a man hadn't astounded him.

Seeing it up close, in the flesh, enough to render him with scars was an entirely different matter.

"This is, of course, if you would rather change our flight to Japan," Kristin added.

Nathan slowly nodded. They were going to speak to the girls' grandfather, as he was an open Elemental. He hadn't shied away from his powers and wasn't afraid of showing them to his family. There was a good chance he had some insight into what was going on with Trethaway and Elemental research in general. He could be a good help.

"No," he finally said. "We'll still go. We just need to be sure we have all of our information straight before we talk to your grandfather."

"Shouldn't be a problem, Core," Christian agreed, sliding his hands into his jeans pockets.

That part wasn't going to be a problem. The flight to Japan wasn't going to be a problem. It was the answers to their questions that were the problem.

He hoped they were ready for them.

* * *

**A/N: **This is a direct continuation of the 'look into the past chapters' from _Out of Doubt _like they had been in _Mystic Melody_. I knew it had to be brought back up at some point and considering the ending of the last chapter it felt like a good place to put it.

Plus they have an even bigger part in this story so it'll give me a chance to re-work some things that I had done with them in the last stories as well as work on their personalities and flesh out their characters a bit more.

I hope you guys liked it.

Cheers,

-Riles


	8. The darkness isn't a thing, it's alive

CHAPTER SEVEN

* * *

Cody settled onto the couch in Christian Manning's basement and did his best not to get to drawn down into his thoughts. Zack saw his mother and father? The last time they were around, they were evacuating from the city before everything went to shit. Right. That's why they left. Cody couldn't lie to himself without cringing, knowing the real reason they had gone away. It was because they had been too scared of their sons, then finding out they had been some of the people that had been drawing the danger towards the city. One look at their guardians and the twins were basically disowned, considered freaks, and were abandoned in the city without a word of goodbye. At the time it was all Cody needed, that one last hug or kiss, just to let them know that they were still a family.

Who could be a family with someone that was that much trouble?

It was like a murderer or someone who went to jail. How far would someone have to go before you gave up on them and didn't want to have anything to do with them? There was a fine line between what was right for you and what was right for someone else and at some point that line had to be crossed or stood behind.

"There's a lot of stuff we need to explain to them," Diamond said to Christian once everyone was gathered around in the basement. He took off his gun holsters and placed them on the table next to him. Each time he would place the gun down it would make a loud clacking sound against the metal, a great reminder of the weight it carried. Literally and figuratively. "Not that there's much we understand ourselves, but from what we know now…"

"I get it, Diamond, don't worry," Christian replied, holding up a hand. He took a deep breath, pushing himself back away from the computer. He ran his hands over his face, resting his hand on his stubble covered chin, looking even more anxious than Cody had ever seen before. It was a testament to all of the work he had been doing with Elementals for basically all his life and Cody wondered if he had ever actually been thanked for it.

Before he spoke, the door to the basement opened and there was a gust of wind as Julius Jackson and Maddie Fitzpatrick appeared in the basement as well, brushing down the disheveled clothes that had been knocked loose by their zipping to the house. In normal circumstances Julius would have been crushed under flying bodies of his siblings and cousins as they would give him a hug. This time, they sat still as their brother and his girlfriend situated themselves amongst the teenagers on the ground, in chairs, and on couches.

There would be plenty time to greet each other later.

"OK, now everyone's here," Zack said with an air of impatience. "And my first question is how do you know Diamond?"

"He was the one that had gotten me out of the State House during the last battle with Mother Nature," Christian explained patiently. "While you guys were out trying to free yourselves and close the portal form the arboris, I was being used as a confidant for those that had captured you." He scratched the side of his head. "Personally, I think they did a terrible job. But it was something they had to do."

Diamond spoke up. "We knew you weren't going to come in willingly, especially considering how we had to take you by force." He watched the group of teenagers with his calculated eyes. Cody realized his words were calculated as well and realized it was how he had always spoken. It was the way he had been trained. Who knew how long he had been trained to become that way? To shed his former self and leave that behind. Diamond didn't appear to be old, somewhere between 20 and thirty, the exact number escaped him, but the time he had been trained must have done something to him that damaged his former self.

Just like everything for the past four years had done to him and his brother. Not that it was a competition, if so, he would, in a roundabout way, have been a winner. If suffering was the grand prize, he was nowhere close to winning.

"Are you not exactly telling us that the government had been following us, videotaping us, and took us away because they _wanted _our help?" Bailey's eyebrows rose.

"If that's the case, that's fucking ridiculous," Riley said, her right eyebrow rising in a look of disbelief. Then her face darkened as she leaned forward, holdings her hands between her legs. Her hands were clenched into tight fists. "They've been nothing but _dickwads_, chasing us down and having to live a life of fear and secret because every time something like this happens, they try to cover it up." She waved a hand over at her Uncle. "Case in point, everything they've ever fucking found while in college."

"I know it's hard to believe," Christian finally said. "But it's true." He pushed his chair back and stood up to face the teenagers. He ran his hands over his face again and then started to speak. "Everything that we had ever found, while we were in college, or everything after, shows that the government was actually using us...or _you _rather, to help them. As a sort of social security in a way. However, the means they went to accomplish this wasn't always the best way."

"You got that right," Patrick muttered.

"There had been many elementals that had to be sacrificed so that we could really see what was going on, and your parents,"—he motioned to the Jacksons—"your mother and I, had been some of the ones recruited to help."

"And that's why Dad was a rocket scientist," Rhuben commented with a nod.

"Yes." Christian nodded back. "However he was always very smart and annoyingly so." He gave a hint of a smile, causing the siblings to turn to their youngest brother, whose dimples appeared in his cheeks as he smiled. He definitely took after his father. Christian continued, "having that opportunity was something he couldn't pass up, especially considering that the women we were seeing at the time had elemental lineage in their family due in part, that we only knew of, of their grandfather or your great-grandfather."

"But what does that mean for the rest of us?" Tapeworm crossed his legs at the knee. His arms were stretched across the back of the couch, his hands twitching, fingers rapidly tapping the couch, the coarse fabric scratched against his skin as he did so. "There's so much that we don't know…what about our parents?"

"Your parents had never been directly in contact with it, which is one of the reasons why this group right here, had awakened," Christian explained.

Zack made a noise of disagreement. "I thought you awakened because of being in immediate danger." He looked down at his hands and Cody recognized the pensive expression on his face. The look of intense concentration. It was what he always had whenever he was actually trying to do his homework. Confusion and frustration. "I remember seeing the fire and seeing Blazen when I was fighting Koto for the first time…"

"While that may be the case, you awakened because Riley awakened you," Christian explained then turned to Cody, whose eyebrows rose. "Just like you awakened because Rhuben awakened you. You saw your element and your guardian; you could have passed it off as a hallucination or a dream, as many people have done before when they had the ability to awaken. However, they had never taken the opportunity. You saw it and you didn't shy away from it, then when Koto and Reihu beat you guys for the first time, they were the ones that had seen your potential at the time and awakened you guys. Otherwise, if there is a traumatic event or you're in danger, you can awaken as well."

"Which is what happened to Crys and them," Aaron added. He seemed to have understood it completely. Cody had always wondered about him. He seemed to have some abilities of his own, though it was never confirmed what it was.

"Then what about Max and Tapeworm?" Cody asked. "Did Zack and I awaken them?"

"Yes."

"Then why isn't Bailey an elemental?"

"For the same reason you are, she was destined not to."

"But you've said that one in every five people are an elemental and with the group as large as we have, the chances of her being one are great as well."

Christian appeared irritated with Cody's contradictions. "That's something no one can explain." There was a slight growl to his tone. "None of us have ever been to the Element World so we can't understand why Geneva, Gattaca, and Mother Nature have all seemed gravitated to her."

Cody fell silent, nodding. He hadn't meant to annoy the older man. He respected the scientist as much as he had respected any of his teachers or figures of authority. He was just so tired of not having answers to the questions he had been asking since he was fourteen. _Not knowing is what's going to kill us._

"Cody, relax," Noah said. He was sitting on Noah's other side, quiet as ever; pensive as he took in all of the information he was given.

"I'm sorry," Cody burst out. "But how relaxed can anyone be when everything that once made sense is now making you feel like you've seen a ghost?"

At Christian's and Diamond's confused expressions, Rhuben spoke up. "Zack and Cody saw London and Moseby at the Tipton…but they way they were talking was like nothing had happened with the SS Tipton."

"And I haven't been able to find anything with the SS Tipton since we left," Crystal added. She ran her hand through her black/blue streaked hair, eyes troubled. "And I've been searching everything and can't find one instance anywhere."

"Of course not," Christian replied. "We had to hide it." If his daughter was perturbed at her father's conspiration against her, she didn't let it show. Instead, she nodded as if it had all made sense. "Everything with the SS Tipton had to be hidden in case ones that witnessed you guys looked to see what happened."

"Typical government practice," Patrick remarked.

"It had to be done," Julius finally spoke up. His arms were encircling the knees brought up to his chest. Being the eldest of all of the elementals, Cody had initially thought he would have taken up the leadership role that had been entrusted upon Zack. But the group then quickly realized that as Julius was able to control all of the elements; it made him weaker than the others, especially as it took one person a while to learn how to control just the ones the others had. "Their main priority, other than the protection of our country, is to make sure that we don't cause a nationwide panic."

"I think it's a little late for that, bro," Patrick remarked.

_It's too late for a lot of things, _Cody realized. It was too late to continue to question things. It was time to get things done rather than sit back and let it happen to them. His hands clenched. He was never one that was an aggressive person, choosing to be passive and let things roll off his back. Many years of fighting for his life had changed that. Cody's eyes moved around the room, his eyebrows lowering. Computers, Filing cabinets, wires, electronics all filled the room, all of it holding the knowledge that the kids lacked.

He was tired of not knowing anything.

"So why were we brought here?" He asked, flipping his hair out of his face. He reached behind him, untied his ponytail, and then tied it up again. "Other than protection I mean."

Diamond now took up the conversation. "We never wanted to have this happen but now it's too late." He placed his hands behind his back. Cody recognized the stance and realized he had military training. To what extent did he give his life to the cause? "When the portal between the Element World and Earth opened, it started before we could stop it."

"What sort of project is it?" Rhuben sounded impatient. Her knees were bobbing up and down rapid fire. As Cody watched her, he suddenly realized how well he still knew her. He could tell from the look on her face that there was something wrong. There was a haunted aura deep in her dark blue eyes. Beside her, Reihu seemed disinterested in the conversation.

Maybe he was torn. Cody had never asked him about his experiences with WingzCorp and how the revelation of Core's true intentions had affected him. He was the one that had followed Core's orders and seen him as a sort of mentor for years and to have it all ripped away from him, just like he had been ripped away from his family…maybe he had suffered more than the others could even begin to imagine. It made sense that he and Rhuben had eventually ended up together, he realized. They were like kindred spirits in a way.

"Peregrinatio transtemporalis," Christian replied.

There was a blank look that moved through the room. Cody recognized it as Latin, he had an idea what it meant, but they weren't the words he would have chosen to explain it. As it was, even he was a little confused. _It wouldn't be the first time, _he thought.

"Time Travel," Sydney finally spoke up. All eyes turned to the youngest member of the group. "I would have used iter transtemporale as the direct translation but both works, especially considering the root of transteporale, which means to travel. Though it could also, potentially, be used to refer to a worm hole, which could have the same properties as time travel in general." He then looked serious. "I've heard about it, who hasn't? But I thought that, like cloning dolly, it was something that was far off and only atoms had been moved so far."

"You're right," Christian agreed. "Up until recently when we found something." He and Diamond exchanged a glance. "Or should I say _someone_."

"Who?" Zack snickered. "Father Time."

"Precisely."

"I was kidding."

"It makes sense though," Tapeworm said. His eyebrows were furrowed together, the skin between them wrinkled. "When I went there…in my dream…there were mentions of a king and queen of sorts. At the time I thought only Mother Nature ruled the place as you can't have light without darkness, you can't have nature without time."

"You know, you'd figure I wouldn't be so surprised about these things anymore," Riley said slowly. She leaned back against the bottom of the couch, crossing her arms over her chest. She was chewing her lower lip, absentmindedly playing with her hair. "What does that have to do with why we're here?"

Christian turned around and picked up three sheets of paper. When he turned back around, he revealed them to be photographs of the Jacksons' parents, Core, and Crystal's mother. All of the pictures appeared to be of age when they were in college, maybe their yearbook pictures. Each one of them were smiling without a care in the world. It was eerie, seeing photos of those that had passed years before, knowing the ways they had passed.

"They all had been taken from us too early because of the things we were finding out," he said. "And even with them gone, they've helped in more ways that I could ever imagine and it could be what stops this all together."

_Not Core thought, _Cody reminded himself. _He's only missing. No one knows where he is. _Not that it made a difference. The SS Tipton had been missing before and suddenly the people on there had come back. _Wait… _that was the connection. There had been some sort of a…rip or a tear in the time fabric. Cody had researched it before. Some referred to it as a glitch in the matrix; to a human experiencing déjà vu or an explanation for an unlikely or irregular occurrence. Cody was sure he and Zack had done it once. They had been in a mall in Seattle with their mother, the same mall they had always gone into. They went into the bathroom at one end of the mall, but when they came back out of the bathroom, they were on the other side of the mall.

Cody had been confused, not understanding how the merry-go-round had been moved so quickly. He knew Zack had seen it too, because he had made a whimpering sound of confusion. The two went back into the bathroom and talked to each other, trying to see if they had really seen it then went back out a few seconds later and found Carey waiting by the water fountain for them, like she was supposed to be. When they tried to tell her about it, she brushed it off as a kid's imagination running wild.

Over the years he had forgotten about it, now it all came flooding back.

"Who's to say that it's not possible," Cody mused. His mind was running a mile a minute and he spoke slowly, trying to extract the points that were the most needed. The ones that made the most sense. "No one knows what is possible or what isn't possible and there have been documented cases of people claiming time travel. What about that modern looking guy in the old photograph?" He had seen it on a website and for days tried to figure out how it happened. "What about those that claimed they had been abducted by aliens? I don't believe they were abducted, but it doesn't explain the passage of time and where they claimed they had gone." He gestured towards Christian and Diamond. "I'm sure there have been many instances where you guys had experienced it yourselves if not running into examples of it or studies?"

"And that's exactly why we brought you here," Diamond added.

The room seemed to hold their breath in that moment. "What do you want us to do?" Maddie asked.

"The reason all of this has happened is because of the collapse of the barrier between the Element and human world. Though there have been instances of humans in that world; as is the case from your guardians having human forms, we have reason to believe that if we can find when the barrier started to open and how to close it, we can put all of this behind us."

"You're saying you want us to be able to find a way to time travel?" The bewildered expression on Patrick's face was priceless.

"We're not saying it," Diamond contradicted. "We're telling you."

* * *

Sitting in her uncle's office, Rhuben frowned, looking over the pictures of her parents, her aunt, and their friend that had been left on the table. When she had the time, she picked them up and walked them into the office so she could have time to herself. They were frozen in time, at a time where they were clearly happier. Having gotten married right out of college and having their first child about two years later, and the rest of their children after that, they had only been in their thirties by the time they had passed. Or, as the case actually was, was murdered. It was so strange to think about, she realized. That they had been taken away from her all because of selfish reasons and it was something, at the time, she hadn't understood.

How would life had been different if they were still around? She would have been happier, that was for sure. She and her siblings wouldn't have gone through that much pain and they wouldn't have been so confused and alone when they had awakened and were trying to figure out what was going on with their powers and how to control the. They would have known that WingzCorp was actually trying to help them and maybe have stayed with WingzCorp and Nathan as he was trying to protect them in a sense. At the thought of her former home, all those years ago, Rhuben glared down at the pictures in front of her.

He had been cruel in a sense. Taking those that were normal, that had the possibility of awakening and living what could have been a semi-normal life, and experimenting on them and turning them into something no one had ever become. Reihu had been a victim of that, being taken from his family when he was a kid and had been turned into a half-human, half-lion hybrid that had been following her around since they were kids. Even when they had been fighting WingzCorp throughout the years he had been hesitant in attacking her. She knew he had a crush on her, everyone knew that, but he was essentially just a kid that hadn't been around girls as she was the only one in the DarkLions, her section of the large organization.

It was good to know that the feelings were genuine, that was a need of some normalcy as things went on. Even when she had gone out with Cody there was a part of her that knew he wouldn't understand what she was going through...what she _had _gone through. He was trying to be optimistic, trying to get her to forget everything that had gone on before and that wasn't what she wanted. She didn't want to forget, she didn't want to have all of those memories go away and in the end it was something she couldn't deal with anymore. He had understood that, when they talked, but he was still hurt and confused over what had happened to break them up.

"You know, I never realized before how much you look like your mother." Rhuben barely glanced over her shoulder as Cody walked up behind her. He picked up the picture on his left and looked it over. "Like, almost exactly like her."

"Codes…that's my Aunt," Rhuben corrected him. She reached to the right and picked up the picture lying on that side of her father. "This is my mum, mate."

Cody blushed and took the picture offered to him. Rhuben sat down on the stool by the table, crossing her legs at the knee. She leaned forward and continued to study the picture. Her father had certainly been handsome and he clearly had a mischievous side, from the glint in his eye that showed he knew more than he was letting on. At the same time, she could see how he had been taken so seriously, he commanded respect but still had the friendly demeanor all Australians seemed to have. She could see her face in his, especially the eyes as each of his kids had taken his blue eyes. Her smile was his too. However, stick her next to her mother and, somehow, she seemed to look exactly like her as well; the hair and the nose and the face structure that fluctuated between thin and round that had caused her and Riley to be mistaken for being younger than they were for years.

"Still, you look exactly like her," Cody continued, putting the picture down. "She was beautiful."

"She was," Rhuben agreed.

"Her name was Ruriko?"

"Renee…it really depended on who was referring to her at the time, but she answered to both names."

"Ah."

Rhuben stared at the pictures a minute longer and with a harsh sigh, reached out and flipped them back over. She couldn't look at them much longer. She could already feel the darkness closing in on her again and she had to close her eyes and concentrate hard for it to ward off to the point where she could control it. It was becoming harder and harder over the years and she knew it was directly linked to her despair. The next year…not too far away…it would have been ten years since it all started for her and the darkness was getting harder and harder to control each day.

"I know."

Cody's voice startled her and she managed to send out a small burst of energy across the room, knocking a clock off the wall. It fell to the floor, breaking the plastic front covering, knocking the hands into a certain position.

"I know that you're having trouble controlling your powers," Cody continued. "I saw it in your eyes earlier today," he continued as Rhuben gazed at him, her eyes slowly narrowing. "I saw it when you had attacked those two guys and gave them the…"

Rhuben closed her eyes and turned away, clenching her hands into fists as a sharp pain moved through her head. She gritted her teeth together, sucking each new and haggard breath through her teeth. _Stop, stop, stop…_she thought. _You can do this…don't let it take you over…_It took a couple of moments, but the pain finally went away, allowing her to breathe again. Just the thought alone…seeing what she had done to them made it come back. She had done it when the kids from Halo Syndicate had been attacking them. That had been the first time she had let her powers go out of control in ages, she had essentially fried the poor kid's brain, releasing thoughts, ideas and images no one had ever wanted to see and sent them into a permanent shell shock.

The same she had done to those men that had been fighting them. It was becoming harder and harder to not do it while in battle anymore. Even sparring with her siblings, while back in Australia, she had to try hard not to let it take her over completely. It was a wonder she was even able to function anymore as it was a constant thought in the back of her head.

"I know it's hard for you to control," Cody continued, his voice soothing. "But…if my plan works, depending on what happens, it could be something that really helps us."

Rhuben looked at him sharply then gave a scornful laugh. "That's great, Codes. Being able to completely get taken over…" She turned to him, glaring fiercely before lowering her voice to a harsh whisper. "Do you know what it's like? The darkness isn't just a thing…it's alive. It's something that is in everyone and if they allow it to get to them…then it has you. You're done. You're gone. It's an evil thing…as far as I'm concerned; it may be the devil itself."

"That would explain your guys' curses then," Cody said.

Rhuben didn't respond. She hadn't needed to think about that in a while; hers, Riley's, and Crystal's curses…it wasn't anything they had problems with in the past couple of years. It didn't mean it had completely gone away.

"Look." Cody took another step towards her. He angled his head back towards the basement. "I saw the look in your eyes when we were out there…the haunted look and I know you're still thinking of what you've done. You didn't have a choice in the matter, they may have killed you before we could—"

"I don't know if you really are a few sheep short of the station, mate, but they just got done saying they need our help," Rhuben interrupted. "I don't think they were trying to kill us." She turned her head away. "Which just made what I've done worse," she murmured.

"But if what they're saying is true, then we're really going to need you," Cody insisted. "It's like Tape said, you can't have darkness without light and vice versa. Geneva and Gattaca exhibit that as they're the current rulers of the Element World and hold the balance. You hold part of the balance, it'll be hard, but you and your powers are one of the most important people right now."

"What about light then? None of us holds that."

"We'd have to figure that out, but I need you to trust me on this," Cody insisted. "I…have an idea and you'd be a big part of it. I don't know if it'd word though."

"Considering the only other option that I have it death I don't trust a lot of people," Rhuben remarked. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "Especially considering what happened."

"Since then have I given you a reason not to trust me, Rhu?"

"No…"

"Well?"

Rhuben twisted her mouth to the side before looking down at her hands. Even as she watched, they started to glow a light purple. It took only a little bit of concentration to get it to stop this time. It was worrying; if there was a way she could get it to stop, to be absolutely sure she wasn't trouble for those around her. If she could be sure that her brothers and sister weren't in any danger.

She glanced at the time on the clock.

"You know I'm a nyctophilic right?"

Cody smiled. "What does that mean?"

"It means, Cody, that you have a _lot _of work ahead of you," Rhuben said.

* * *

**A/N: **Now that I've got the general idea of my story fleshed out, things should start making more sense soon, haha. As it is, this story's rating may need to go up to 'M' at some point because of language and violence. I'm just giving a general warning now.

I'm doing my best to give the other characters bigger parts as the story focuses on Zack, Cody, and Bailey and revolves (mostly) around their POVs. Hopefully I did a good job of it here because I'm gonna split the POVs as it goes on because I've figured out what I'm doing now.

And now we have thrown Father Time into the mix which was an idea given to me by _tiger002 _which I talked to with Cry and Rhu about and they agreed that having that as an element to their world was a good idea. It gave us a good chuckle as well.

For those wondering I'm still working on _Help Me, Save Me _and _Intuition _(the sequels to _Save Me From Myself_) I haven't given up on them.

Cheers,

-Riles


	9. I don't want to hurt you

CHAPTER EIGHT

* * *

The FCIC; Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. The CIA; Central Intelligence Agency. The two organizations that were stationed in Langley, Virginia, a couple miles outside of D.C. Every time a crisis would come up in the United States there were some sort of faction of both teams that would immediately fall into action. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission's last big piece of work was considering the attacks on 9/11 as the fallout of the economy and the safety of the United States residents were their main priority. Things had to be turned back to normal so that the attacks wouldn't cause a completely fallout to the lives that resided on the thought they were financially stable.

The CIA's last project was that of 9/11 as well, taking up most of their time, as well as gathering as much information as they could in regards to terrorism. Anyone that fell under a certain profile was the kind of people the CIA made sure to get their information on, the FBI going on the manhunt afterwards, using the information that CIA had found.

This time, however, both factions were now studying the close link between the Elementals and the way the United States could move forward, now that their presence had become well known over the past couple of years. The heads of each department had been floored, finding out that it was a bunch of teenagers that had been at the head of the fights and destruction going around, especially in Boston, Massachusetts. Not that there hadn't been any other elementals that needed to be followed around the United States as a whole, but Boston was the main area the incidents were happening.

It hadn't taken long for the CIA to figure out that Nathan Reeves, or Core as he preferred to be referred to by, was at the head of the incidents. His work through the government files as well as files of his own had been notified of the first moment he had stumbled across them. The work on elementals had been investigated on and off for years at that point in time, seeing how Core and his friends had managed to find out more than the government could in a matter of months, the four had been kept tabs of the rest of their lives.

Now they had a group of teenagers deep in their organization, getting the intense training only those that had the mental capability could withstand. Some would say "they're only kids, how could you do that to them?"

But if anyone had seen how they worked up close, they would note that they more than 'just kids'.

They were the ones that were going to save the word.

* * *

Bailey flipped herself upside down, holding herself up on the parallel bar by her legs. After a couple of minutes, she could feel the heaviness of blood rushing to her head, collecting at the base and turning her eyes red. The backs of her legs started to burn but she continue to hold herself upside down. That was what she had to train for, to push herself to the limit when things got uncomfortable. One of the easiest ways to break someone was by forcing them into constant pain for as long as they could handle it. She knew of the dangers of hanging upside down for too long; high blood pressure hemorrhaging, stroke, brain damage, blindness, seizures…

All of those were possible outcomes to the form of torture. She had heard about them before, being turned upside down and allowing the pressure to build until death if not getting a chance to relieve the pressure. And that was only one form of the torture that could be used, another being held in a upside down like position, but having water run over your face, giving you the feeling that you were drowning, if not from the claustrophobia as the person being tortured was put in a shallow like grave to achieve the affect.

Bailey closed her eyes, breathing a steady stream through her nose and out her mouth. A dull pain started to throb at the side of her head. She could hold on a little bit longer. Her extensive research of the human body as well as how each system worked throughout it was something she was knowledgeable about. She knew when her body was going to give out; it wasn't like the rest of her friends. She wasn't an elemental so she didn't have the ability to run faster or lift more weights or be impervious to certain things; she had to work her body harder and harder to be a valuable part of the team.

_"You are a valuable part of the team," Geneva pointed out. "You've always been since I first revealed myself to you. I knew you were able to handle what was going on."_

_"And you were one of the ones that managed to stop me," Gattaca added. "As well as to help return to mother back to the Element World where she's reigning over the kingdom the best she can."_

"What does that mean for Father Time though?" Bailey asked out loud. Opening her eyes, she groaned, seeing how the colors had started to change, and slowly brought herself up onto the uneven bars. She brought a hand up to her chin. "Just like in the human world, if there's a lack of time, there's a lack of life. Plants wouldn't grow, humans wouldn't grow up to become adults, there would be on advances in technology. We would still be in the proverbial dark ages." Stretching her legs out, she rested her feet on the bar that was across from her and bent forward, placing her face in her hands, waiting for the pounding to go away. "What does that mean for the Element world?"

"Without Father Time's presence in the Element World, it's only a matter of time before it will inevitably collapse," Gattaca said bluntly.

Bailey sucked in a sharp breath.

"But don't worry, child, Mother Nature is doing her best to preserve the life of the Element World," Geneva reassured her. "You're forgetting that it's managed to hold its own for as long as she and Gattaca haven't been there. Those that are still there are defending it as much as they can from those that are trying to take it over. That's what the Mystic Melody is for."

"Tapeworm explained that to me once," Bailey said. She finally sat back, pulling her hair out of her face. "It's a battle sound that you all use as a warning to get prepared for a fight, right?"

"It's used for more than that."

"The Mystic Melody is also what's used to enhance the powers of those that are going to go fight, depending on the strength of the opponent they're going after. The longer the melody goes on, the more power they need."

"I always thought the power of the Elementals were infinite," Bailey mused. Bringing her leg down, she started to kick them back and forth. She could feel the muscles in her legs starting to cramp up and tighten with each kick of her leg. It seemed like humans were able to have an infinite source of power, but even then there was a chance for people to completely tire themselves out, no matter how in shape they were. "If there's a limit to that power…where does it come from?"

"From the world's core." Bailey turned around to see Aaron walk into the room, skillfully dodging the pieces of gymnastic equipment that had been left behind by those that had been using it before. He pulled himself up onto the bars next to her and turned to face her, shifting his floppy blonde hair from his face. "Or the maybe the Earth's core, considering the world is collapsing on the other." His voice cracked at the end of his sentence, causing Bailey to smile. The young boy had definitely grown up in the couple of years that Bailey had known him. He had started to lose the baby fat that had been left over and his voice had started to change, along with growing to the point where he was nearing being taller than the girls. "There's a theory that the core of the planet, along with being surrounded by magma and rock, holds the essence of life of that planet." He flipped his floppy blond hair out of his face. "And if that were the case, that means that the power of the core of the planet is the only thing that's keeping life alive."

Bailey slowly nodded. In a way, that made sense. Everything she had ever known about life, before accidentally stumbling upon Zack's and Cody's secret had all seemed to implode as soon as she had seen that battle. She closed her eyes. Koto and Reihu had been very vicious the way they had fought the twin boys. It was obvious they had been dealing with it for a long time, especially the way they had interacted with each other in between the punches and kicks and fire and water attacks. She hadn't known anything about that existence until it was right in front of her face. Who said it wasn't possible that the earth's core was more than what scientists were lead to believe? Who said it really wasn't an infinite source of power that kept the planet from collapsing?

"If that were the case, then how hasn't it been tapped out yet?" Bailey returned.

Aaron slowly blinked, his eyebrows furrowing together. "How do we know it hasn't?" He returned. "You're forgetting that we haven't been able to accurately see everything about the Element World and we probably never will. There're a lot of different things that we won't know until the time is right." He rolled his eyes. "God knows that's not going to happen until the Earth blows up."

Bailey laughed and gently lowered herself to the ground. _We could only be so lucky, _she thought. _If the Earth blows up, we could probably all move to the Element World and keep things going from there._

"But then there's the fact that we don't know how things work over there," Aaron continued. "Sure, Tapeworm somehow managed to manifest part of him that was able to get there in his dreams, but we can't be sure that was the real thing." He ran a hand through his hair, brushing the bangs off his forehead. "At the same time, who am I to say that he didn't see what he saw?"

Bailey looked back at the young boy, who had jumped down next to her, resting his hand on the bar. He gently tapped his fingers up and down, the vibrations moving through her palm and up through her body. That was the way he was able to see things, through sounds and vibrations, maybe a mental picture after being in a specific place for so long. He proved at times to be a skilled fighter despite the fact that he wasn't able to see. He didn't have any powers that they knew of but managed to compensate for it by using his smarts that rivaled Sydney's, to help out the rest of the group.

"You seem to know a lot about this," Bailey remarked.

Aaron shrugged. "Just theories," he denied. "The fact that I can't see it directly is the most difficult part. But that's why I have this program that basically explains it in things other than just pictures and ideas; it explains it in numbers and figures."

That, Bailey realized, might be what they needed to help figure things out. It was limiting, in a way, to only be able to see things as they happen, rather than try to understand them in different ways. Bailey chewed her lower lip as she thought about it. It made a lot of sense. Maybe that's exactly what they needed.

"You know how your sister's computer has a lot of stored up information on Elementals that your Dad has managed to gather?" She asked slowly. Aaron nodded. "Is there any way that you can use that in your program and change it to the algorithms that you use?"

"Possibly," Aaron agreed. "I'd need Sydney's help but—"

"Exactly," Bailey agreed. "That's exactly what I'd need." She reached out and ruffled Aaron's hair, causing a small smile to appear on his face. "Thanks!" She grabbed her towel off the floor and walked out of the gymnastics area and out into the hallway. She took a deep breath, looking around the winding, confusing hallways of the compound that she and her friends had been transported to. A part of her had been excited to know she was going to be seeing the CIA headquarters and how things in DC really worked—it being one of her biggest dreams—before realizing they were going to be put up in a compound to eat, sleep, and breathe rigorous training before they were sent out on their next mission.

Hopefully this would be the one that would save both world and keep them from fading from existence.

Hearing a door close down the hall, Bailey followed the sound and locked eyes with Cody, who had just come out of the medical room. From the small bandage that had been put on his right forearm, he must have had a physical done. The two continued to watch each other for a moment and Bailey gave him a nod before turning on her heel and walking away from him.

It was funny how things like war managed to tear even the closest people apart.

* * *

"I don't want to hurt you," Zack said, cracking his knuckles.

Riley, who stood across the room from him, cocked an eyebrow. Her upper lip curled at his words and she gritted her teeth. "You won't," she replied coolly. She fluttered her fingers at her sides before curling them into fists. "You won't even get close enough," she added under her breath.

"Are you ready?" Christian asked, staring down at a computer screen. Sydney sat at his side, looking at his own computer, eyebrows lowered in concentration. One he got the confirmation nod from Zack and Riley, Diamond pressed a button not he stop watch to signal the start of the match. "Go!"

"Firestorm!" Riley was quick to move, summoning her fire powers and creating a hail storm of fireballs down towards the blond teen. Zack dove forward onto the ground and rolled out of the way of the raining fire. He cupped his hands together and send a stream of fire back towards her. Riley flipped backwards out of the way, barely managing to escape a burst of fire, it singing her shoulder. Using her enhanced speed, she surged forward and ducked under Zack's outstretched arm, spinning on her left foot and driving the heel of her right into the side of his face.

Zack stumbled back, bringing a hand up to his cheek. He scowled then brought his hands up, throwing a punch back at her. Riley caught it in her hand and forced his arm out of the way, punching him in the side. Zack retaliated by grabbing onto both of her hands and forcing them apart. He wrapped his right leg around her left and forced her to the floor, aiming a kick of his heel down onto her stomach.

"Wow, they're really going at it," Sydney murmured.

"I did say I wanted to test the extent of their powers," Christian murmured. "It's not common that two people having the same element in close proximity."

"What about Cody and Crystal?"

"Ice and water are similar factions, but they're not the same thing. Their powers can easily help each other as they're in two different states. Just like if one of you were and Elemental of Light he or she and Rhuben would be able to help each other as their powers can't work, or stay in balance, without each other. Having two fires, on the other hand, has the better chance of causing more destruction."

"But Zack controls regular fire and Riley controls dark fire! Wouldn't that balance it out?"

Christian nodded. "Normally, it should, considering all signs point to the fact that Zack is Riley's light, but in this case it may have to do more with pent-up aggression."

Sydney nodded. "The Koto thing?"

"And considering she was the one that awakened him and he ended up being stronger than her; that may have something to do with it." Christian winced as Riley struck Zack with a kick so hard he fell back, rolling across the mats that were the floor of the training room. "And she basically just proved my point."

Sydney looked up at his uncle with a sly smile. "Something tells me you're not just having them fight to see what Zack's power is like now that he can use the Element Stone of Fire,"

"You'd be correct."

Sydney sighed, shaking his head though he chuckled in amusement.

Zack's scowl deepened as he crossed his arms and brought them up, shielding his face as Riley aimed a fiery kick at him. He pushed her backwards and his right hand started to glow a brilliant red. Instead of the glow encompassing only his hand, it went over his entire right arm before it burst into flames. Still crouching on the ground, Zack started to windmill his arm, as if he was warming up his arm for a baseball pitch. Each time his arm swung around the flames continued to get brighter and brighter.

"Here we go," Christian murmured. Sydney nodded and angled the camera that was connected to his laptop over at Zack, zooming in as close as he could, while still getting a good picture.

"Fire kiln!" Zack stopped swinging his arm and thrust his arm forward. The fire came off his arm and continued to spin in a large fireball. It got bigger and bigger before shooting across the room over towards Riley, creating a form of a dragon so large that the temperature of the room rapidly increased.

_Dammit. _Riley took a step back then glared, furrowing her eyes together. She thrust out her own right arm. "Darkness Dragon Flame!" The black dragon that resided on her arm lifted up and turned into flames as well. It roared loudly and charged back towards the dragon that Zack had created. Hers was considerably smaller than Zack's dragon and while it had done considerable amount of damage over the years—enough so that she only used the attack a handful of times—Zack's dragon crashed into it and dissipated it, his dragon crashing into Riley and sending her into the back wall. She fell to the floor, breathing heavily, closing her eyes. _Dammit. _She knew she had made a mistake, using that attack so early when it drained so much of her power…

It was a mistake. She knew that now.

"Stop!" Diamond called, pressing a button on the stopwatch once more. He glanced at the time and walked it over to Christian who looked at the time and wrote it down.

Riley, who continued to sit on the floor, slowly brought her knees up, resting her forehead on her knees. She tried to catch her breath, already feeling lightheaded. She had been right in disagreeing to the practice in the first place, it was a bad idea. But then Sydney had done what he always did to get his way and widened his already large eyes to appear as innocent as possible, immediately causing her walls to crumble, making her give in. _This was your fault; you can do better than that. You have before. You just let what they said get to you…_

"I said I didn't want to hurt you," Zack said, walking over and sitting down in front of her. "I'm sorry."

Riley lifted her head and looked at him defiantly. "You didn't," she denied stubbornly.

"I think that would prove you wrong." Zack indicated to the burn on her shoulder. She merely glanced at it, before shrugging, turning her head away. "Don't you want to get it looked at?"

"No!" Riley climbed to her feet, gritting her teeth as a flash of pain rushed up her arm. She walked away from Zack and turned to Christian, Diamond, and Sydney for further instruction. They all seemed preoccupied with the data they had just collected. That was fine. She left the training room and headed back towards the room she had been assigned, her footsteps echoing quickly off the wall, her fast pace expressing her agitation. After a few minutes of walking she let out an exasperated sigh and turned her head so that she could look at Zack out of the corner of her eye. "Stop following me!" She snapped.

Zack smirked as he picked up his pace, falling into step beside her. "I've been following you for years and it's never bothered you before."

"I just never said anything before," Riley murmured. "I was too busy punching or slapping you." Zack grabbed onto her arm, pulling her to a stop. "Which is what I'll do again if you don't let go."

"Not until we talk about this," Zack said forcefully. He tilted his head back in the direction of the training room. "You let what they said get to you."

Riley frowned, doing her best to have it be the only amount of emotion to register on her face. She hadn't thought anyone noticed how easily what Christian had said shook her. She hadn't thought about it in a long time and hearing the words out in the open again affected her more than she had wanted it to.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said.

"About Koto?" Zack's eyebrow rose. "We haven't talked about that at all?"

"What's there to talk about? He's dead. End of story."

The bluntness of her words caused Zack's mouth to tighten. He waited a moment before speaking once more. "The fact that he saved me when he died is a big thing, especially considering beforehand he wanted nothing to do but rip my throat out." Riley didn't respond. "Also because he was your friend even though the two of you never seemed to acknowledge it."

"And for the most part I didn't acknowledge you're my friend either, let alone my boyfriend," Riley pointed out.

"Yeah, and look how well that turned out." Zack snickered.

Riley finally managed a smile, causing Zack to smile back. He leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She turned her head away, bringing a hand up to her forehead and scratched it, hiding the look of anxiety that flashed across her face. "We weren't even close friends anyway. Just two people stuck in the same sort of situation, but I got out and he didn't."

"And me being stronger than you doesn't bother you either?" Zack didn't look convinced.

Riley's lip twitched. "That'd be a petty thing to get upset over don't you think?" Her eyes moved away. It _was_ a sad thing to get over and at the beginning she could admit she was upset over it. She and Rhuben had been used to being so strong and having that sense of responsibility put on them, especially having found out about the prophecy first. When Zack and Cody had been destined to be the strongest relief had taken place of that responsibility along with confusion. They hadn't had any relatives that had been in the situation and all of a sudden they were the strong ones? It hadn't made any sense.

"The fact you're not answering my questions proves my point, considering you only do that when you're trying to avoid something." A small smile graced Riley's lips. Apparently he knew her better than she originally thought. _Must be times he was following me, _she thought. Zack reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, gently stroking her neck. Riley resisted the urge to knock his hand away, not sure if it was a move of affection or condescension. "What is it?"

"Nothing," Riley said finally. "I'm just starting to realize that I really hate not knowing what's going to happen."

"About what?"

"Everything." She placed her hands on his shoulders and gave him a quick kiss. "I'll see you later." Turning on her heel, she continued to her room.

"Are you OK?"

"I'm fine."

* * *

**A/N: **Before I offend anyone, I don't know much about the FCIC or the CIA, I read Wikipedia as much as I could to understand, but as with most things having to do with the government in general it escapes me and I only have some general knowledge. So I used the idea of them as sparingly as I could while it fell into the plot with this story.

And Zack and Riley having to talk about Koto was bound to happen sometime between the three stories as there were moments of tension between the two because of that subject through the end of the first story and throughout the second one as well as Riley's thoughts on Zack and Cody being the 'strongest elementals of their time'. Plus I thought a fight between the two as they share the same element would be interesting to write and I haven't done it in a while.

I hope you liked the chapter. I'll update soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


End file.
